From: "Aubrey W. Adkins" Subject: Ivanova Part 10 of ---(WIP) Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 15:23:51 -0400 Ivanova Part 10 of ---(WIP) Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@home.com] Think of this as a space opera. All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners, PTEN, WB, JMS, and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are public domain. Rated PG-10 (Vocabulary) "..." = spoken words <...> = telepathic speech [...] = one's own thoughts, internal (...) = to set off items such as acronyms immediately identified by the phrase they stand for. '...' = to set off odd items??? {...} = italics *********************************************************************** 1200 hours on the bridge of Whitestar 71: "We have sustained severe damage, Captain. We must withdraw to allow our automatic repair systems to do their job," commented his first officer. "We have lost three of us and the remainder are badly damaged, but the threat is still there. We all know what will happen if we don't somehow stop that dreadnought," replied Sheraun. "Take us back in. Maybe, if we can destroy at least one more of the cruiser/carriers, it will allow the EA destroyers to attack the dreadnought before it can begin firing on the domes." "Captain, there is a jump point opening on the far side of the dreadnought," noted his first officer. "Show me!" As Sheraun watched the jump point opened, and out of it came the EAS Ares with all its weapons targeting the dreadnought. Somewhere inside Sheraun real hope made itself known. He knew what that ship could do, or at least he thought he did, but he was puzzled at the erratic readings that her power systems and weapons were producing. He knew it had been in relatively good shape when it had been at Babylon 5, and wondered what could have happened in the intervening time to garner these results. He watched as the dreadnought turned and raked the Ares with its main batteries. That it caused no major damage was not lost on him. His knowledge of Susan Ivanova caused him to ponder what she might have in mind. He knew it would be deadly, but it was frustrating to have to wait. Little did he realize how short that wait would be. ***************************************** 1228 hours onboard the Drakh Dreadnought: "How long before you can open fire on the domes?" queried the Drakh commander. "We will have the final computations done and weapons recharged in about five standard minutes. Once we start, the computers will continue the attack until all the domes are destroyed," answered his weapons officer. "I want this done as quickly as possible. That was the Ares that we just exchanged fire with. It will be back. I want to be gone before it returns." "Commander, they cannot do any real damage to us especially in their present condition," commented his intelligence officer. The Drakh sat thinking very hard. The Earth ship had jumped in and exchanged fire then jumped out. It didn't make any logical sense. The more he thought about it, the more he worried. The commander of that ship had destroyed his vessel's sister ship, a space station and four other major combatants. That commander would have had a very good reason for his actions. "Did you get an analysis on the short burst communications signals we intercepted earlier?" "Commander," noted one of the sensor console operators, "The transmissions contained no intelligence. They weren't standard EA communications transmissions." "Then what were they?" "As best we can determine, they are pure data transmissions that are heavily encrypted. We received more of them just as the Ares was jumping to hyperspace." "Show me the locations of the jump points that opened earlier and the location of the jump points that the Ares generated a few minutes ago." The commander looked at the three-dimensional display for about half a minute, then ordered, "Navigation, open a jump point and get us away from here, NOW!" "Sir?" "I SAID NOW!" "It will take a few minutes, Commander. The jump engines are offline," replied his navigator. "Sir! There is a jump point forming about twenty-five kilometers off our aft starboard quarter!" Said a sensor console operator. "Weapons! Target that jump point! Navigator! Bring us about! NOW! Weapons, as soon as we can, target the jump point with the main batteries. Are our missiles capable of firing?" Demanded the Commander. "The missile launchers are not energized at this time, Commander," replied the weapons officer. "It will take at least fifteen standard minutes to make them ready." As the Ares began to exit hyperspace the Drakh dreadnought began firing its secondary weapons. "Commander! The power levels I am reading are almost off the monitor scale. I will have to re-calibrate!" Said an excited console operator." Too late, the Drakh commander realized that the erratic power readings and weapons fire from the Ares had been a ploy to make him feel overconfident, and it had worked admirably. The Earth ship had taken fire from his main weapons systems and departed without any really significant damage. That should have aroused his suspicions, but it hadn't. Even in its apparently weakened state, the Earth ship had inflicted not inconsiderable damage to his secondary weapons arrays. If his sensors were correct, it was back, and this time its power systems were functioning at levels beyond their original design specifications. His arrogance prevented him from accepting the fact that he had made a bad tactical decision and was about to pay dearly for it. ************************************************** 1231 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: As the Ares exited the jump point it was hit by a barrage of secondary weapons fire from the Drakh dreadnought. "S.W.C.!" "I'm firing now, Captain," he responded. "Mister Breen?" "Initiating course change to take us under the Drakh ship, Sir." ****************************** 1231 hours onboard the Drakh Dreadnought: "Commander! They have opened fire with their main batteries!" Exclaimed his weapons officer. "I can see that. They have targeted our power generators," he responded. As he finished his sentence all power on the bridge was lost. "Engineering get the emergency generators on line!" He snapped. It was several minutes before he got a response. "Our main distribution switchboards are destroyed, Commander," responded his engineer. "We can't get the main emergency generators on line. We are bringing up the secondary emergency generators, but they only generate enough power to operate the basic life support and lighting systems." Feeling the loss of artificial gravity, the commander knew that his ship was mortally wounded. His ship was nothing more than a very large target. Now he understood how their sister ship had been destroyed. The lessons learned were wasted, because he knew neither he nor any of the others in his task force would live long enough to tell anyone. "Can we get some sensors back on line?" He asked. The commander had no sooner spoken that the holographic display came to life. It showed the Earth ship going under the belly of his ship. He waited for the killing strike, but it never came. As the Ares went beneath his ship, if space can be said to have any up or down, he watched it release something that looked like slow speed missiles. Then he realized they were more akin to space mines. As he continued to wonder, the Ares opened a jump point and disappeared into hyperspace. A moment later several flashes looking like a single large flash, thousands of times brighter than the average sun, destroyed the sensors that were working on his ship. "Commander," said his engineer, "We are reading levels of neutron radiation many times beyond a lethal level on the innermost radiation monitors." "Those were radiation bombs. They intend to kill us and capture the ship," commented the intelligence officer. "Since we don't have any self-destruct mechanism on board, it appears that they may very well succeed. Arm any one who can carry a weapon. We will be ready for them," responded the Commander. Unknown to the commander, his personnel were already beginning to die from the radiation exposure, particularly those who had been near the outer hull areas. ************************************* 1231 hours on the Bridge of the EAS Victoria: Captain Elaine Harper had just turned her command chair to face the engineering watchstation. "How bad is the damage?" "Jump engines are offline, main engines are damaged to the extent we can only do half speed. We have lost fifty percent of our secondary weapons capacity, two main batteries are destroyed, we have sustained six collisions, our defense grid is down and our communications and sensors, except for the point-to-point lasers are useless," responded the engineer. "If we somehow survive, I am going to choke the life out of Cashdollar, personally." Captain Harper had no sooner finished her sentence than her ship shuddered from internal explosions. "What hit us?" She asked rhetorically. "We have been hit by energy beams, Captain," replied the engineer. "The reports I am receiving indicate that we have been heavily damaged just forward of the main reactors. Something damned near cut us in half, Captain. We have a bunch of casualties. Medical is responding." "Where did it come from?" Asked Harper. "As best we can determine, Captain, it came from what we believe to be the general direction of the dreadnought." ********************************** 1231 hours on the bridge of EAS Santiago: "Captain Cashdollar. Shouldn't we be using the recommended tactics for this type of situation to try and extricate ourselves from this battering we are enduring?" Asked his Executive officer, Commander Mark Seivers. "Are you questioning my judgment, Commander?" Seivers looked him directly in the eyes for almost thirty seconds before he answered. "I'd prefer to think of it as offering alternatives, Captain." "I don't need a second in command who is insubordinate, Commander. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes Sir." A minute later the Santiago shuddered under another impact from an unmanned Kamikaze Drakh fighter. Members of the bridge crew looked at one another and at Commander Seivers, fear clearly evident in their eyes. ********************************* 1232 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: The Ares was hitting the Drakh dreadnought with her main batteries at absolute maximum power. "Captain, I can't maintain this firing rate for more than thirty seconds without melting the emitters," noted S.W.C. "That should be more than enough," responded Ivanova. Less than ten seconds after the Ares engaged the Drakh ship with its main batteries, the power readings on the dreadnought dropped to almost zero, as its main and secondary power switching systems consisting of massive buss bars, switches and transformers and control relays, located aft of the reactors and forward of the main engines, were reduced to a mass of molten metal. The ensuing short-circuits caused the ships reactors to execute a safety shutdown. As the ship lost power, its powerful jamming transmitters were silenced. Ten seconds after the Drakh jammers ceased operation, the Ares sensor displays came alive with information from outside the ship. The first thing Susan saw was that a warlock destroyer was in the firing line on the other side of the Drakh ship. Before she could say anything the powerful beams, emitted from the Ares main batteries, sliced through the stern of the dreadnought and struck the side of the unfortunate Earth ship located at slightly more than ten thousand kilometers distance. The sensors displayed the hull damage as Susan ordered, "CEASE FIRE! NOW!" "We have ceased fire, Captain. What's wrong?" Asked S.W.C. "We just damned near cut one of our own ships in half," she responded. "We just killed some of our own people." "I'm sorry, Captain." "It's not your fault. It's my responsibility," responded Susan. "I'll have to answer for it." "We have launched the nukes, Captain," said S.W.C. "I'm getting us out of here right now, Captain," said Breen, as a jump point opened in front of the ship. "Let's get this over with, before we kill any more of our own." "We will be ready to jump in on the cruiser/carriers in five minutes, Captain," said Breen. "S.W.C., when we exit hyperspace, I want those cruiser/carriers destroyed as fast as possible. No poking around about it." "Yes Sir, Captain," he responded. Everyone had heard the defeat in Susan's voice when she mentioned their killing their own people with friendly fire. ************************************** 1234 hours in the flag mess aboard EAS Ares: "My God, that was quick," commented President Luchenko's aide. "Somebody tell me that was real," said Sanchez. I've never seen an attack that quick. Not even when she destroyed the other dreadnought." "Now do you understand, Madam President, why Susan Ivanova was the best choice to fight this ship?" Queried Leftcourt. "Now I understand why this ship cost several times as much as one of the warlocks," she replied. "What are we going to do about the damage to that other destroyer?" "I don't think anyone can be blamed for that," answered Charles Luchenko. "There was no way to know it was even there. And... its distance was so great that a normal weapon would not have caused much, if any, damage. I venture that we have no real data concerning the maximum effective range of this ship's weapons systems under the conditions which they are being operated." "Your husband is correct, Madam President. A warlock would have trouble causing that much damage, in that short a span of time, even at point blank range. We simply have no data concerning this ship's weapons under these conditions. We don't even have guesses. Until now, we didn't know about Susan's little bag of tricks," commented Sanchez. "You're awfully quiet, Captain Owens," observed President Luchenko. "I have nothing to say. I've been aware of her little bag of tricks for a very long time. Captain Ivanova and I have served together for just over two years now. I've worked with her and our crew to develop and test some of the ideas you have seen used here today. She's the best. It's as simple as that." Nobody present disagreed with Captain Owens. ****************************************** 1234 hours in the wardroom onboard EAS Ares: "What just happened, Mister Egan?" Asked Senator Mathers. "The Ares just took out the Drakh dreadnought, for all practical purposes. Now we will probably destroy the remaining cruiser/carrier type ships. That is... the ones that haven't already been destroyed. Today you don't want to be a Drakh in orbit around Mars. Payback is a mother... ," replied Egan. "When, do you suppose, will we get back to Earth?" Asked Mathers. "If we actually capture the dreadnought, I would expect sometime tomorrow. We might get back tonight, but it isn't likely. I imagine General Ivanova will let us know as soon as she knows," responded Egan. ************************************** 1234 hours in the main gymnasium onboard EAS Ares: There was a hushed silence in the space as the journalists watched the attack on the dreadnought and its swift results. After a couple of minutes, a voice from the middle of the group asked, "What in hell was that?" "Gentlemen and women, may I remind you that everything you are seeing is classified. Any story you write about this event must be cleared by the CJCS public affairs office," noted a lieutenant standing behind the group. "If you have any questions, direct them to me, and I will get you answers ASAP, so as not to delay you getting your stories in to your editors." "The weapons fire went through that thing like a big stick through wet tissue paper," commented the voice from the middle of the group. "And shot the hell out of one of our own ships," added another voice. "It couldn't be avoided," commented a third voice, this one a female. "I agree," said the first voice. "You couldn't even tell it was there." "I didn't even know we had weapons that would shoot that far," commented a fourth voice. "We don't," stated the lieutenant from the back of the room. "Then what did we just see?" Asked the first voice. "That's why this is highly classified. I'm not sure what you just saw, and this is my ship. What we have just seen exceeds the design specifications of the Ares. I would imagine this whole endeavor will be classified at least {Top Secret}." "I don't like it, but I understand it," replied the first voice. ************************************** 1237 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "Flag mess, CIC, General Leftcourt, do we have any of your teeps still onboard?" Said Susan In the flag mess, Leftcourt looked at Marsh. "I think we have one left aboard. He wanted to go to the change of command. Why?" Asked Marsh. "I want a teep to accompany Colonel Munoz and his troops over to the Drakh ship. If any of her command crew are still alive, we may learn something about the Drakh near future plans," replied Susan. Sanchez looked at Leftcourt and Marsh with a smile on his face. "I think she covets my job." "Not at all, General. I see no reason to waste a perfectly good opportunity," she answered. Marsh called his man and clued him in on his duties. Then he gave Ivanova the fellows' location. "Tell him one of my people will collect him and escort him to Colonel Munoz... And thank you, General Marsh. For you General Leftcourt, as soon as I destroy the remaining Drakh ships, I'll return the Ares to you. I'm going to accompany Colonel Munoz on his tour on the Drakh ship. I didn't get a chance to tour any of those we captured at Babylon 5," said Susan closing the her audio channel with the flag mess. In CIC the engineer was looking at Susan. "Where is the man located, Captain?" ************************************** 1239 hours in the flag mess: "Did she just say she is going over to the Drakh ship with the marines?" Asked President Luchenko. Leftcourt gave her a look of resignation, "Yes she did. Don't worry about it. She can take care of herself. Give me a minute to dig it out of my luggage, and I will show you an interesting recording. It will allay your fears." "You haven't showed me or Arthur that one, General. You are going to make us feel left out," commented Sanchez. "As soon as the shooting's over with, get the others up here, and we will have a little show-and-tell," replied Leftcourt. "Colonel Munoz gave me this copy just after Susan beat the living hell out of the Arkland boy." ************************************* 1239 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "Captain Ivanova, our forward emitters are still very hot. It would be better if we used the after batteries to kill the cruiser/carriers," noted S.W.C. "You heard him Mister Breen. Take us in butt first," ordered Susan. Chucking to himself, Breen responded, "Butt first it is, Captain." He inputted the commands that turned the ship and simultaneously opened a jump point. "S.W.C., you can open fire at your convenience." "Yes Sir." ************************************** 1240 hours on the bridge of the Drakh cruiser/carrier 'Glith': "Commander those explosions must have been radiation bombs. We have just recorded an increase in the background radiation," announced the sensor operator. "Is it dangerous?" "No Sir. It is just enough to be noticeable, and it corresponds to the time it would take for the radiation to reach us." "The Nilgrafh has been completely disabled. The Earth ship responsible is on its way here. We will be next. Extricate us from these fighters, program our fighters to attack the Earth ship as soon as it exits from hyperspace and jump to hyperspace. Pass that to the Singtal and Hucluj. Our destruction will gain us nothing." "Commander, the number of life signs aboard the Nilgrafh is decreasing. At this rate they will all be dead within two standard hours," observed the sensor operator. "Then let us depart this area, quickly." "Our jump engines are off-line, Commander," said his engineer. "It will be several minutes before we can jump." "Commander, there is a jump point forming about three thousand kilometers off our starboard side," noted his sensor operator. "Get our fighters over there. It is that Earth ship." "I am reprogramming our fighters, but even that will take some time, Commander," replied his weapons officer. "Time is something we do not have." ************************************* 1240 hours on the bridge of the Drakh cruiser/carrier 'Singtal': "Navigator, open a jump point and get us out of here. We will have to leave the fighters," said the ship's commander. "Weapons, get those fighters reprogrammed." "Commander, the jump engines are on line. I am preparing to jump, however, the power to the jump engines is fluctuating. Shall I wait until it steadies up?" Queried the navigator. "Commander! There is a jump point forming off our aft port quarter!" noted a sensor console operator, with agitation evident in his voice. The commander looked at the three dimensional display of the immediate area. There was a ship coming out of the jump point. It was too late to run. "Try and concentrate our fighters on the jump point. Open a jump point. We can't wait for the power to stabilize." As he said this one of the whitestars made a run on his ship. It concentrated its fire on his power reactors. The result was that his power was fluctuating widely, making a jump to hyperspace very perilous, if not impossible. ************************************************* 1240 hours on the bridge of the Drakh cruiser/carrier 'Hucluj': "Commander, the Earth destroyer has found our range. If we don't depart the area immediately we will be destroyed!" Exclaimed the sensor console operator. "Engineering we need the jump engines now! Weapons, we need our fighters reprogrammed five standard minutes ago!" "Powering up jump engines now, Commander," replied the engineer. The commander listened to the incoming message from the Glith. He was already preparing to jump to hyperspace when his sensor console operator said, "Commander, there is a jump point opening directly front of us at a distance of less than four thousand kilometers." "As soon as our jump engines are powered up, jump to hyperspace," ordered the commander. ********************************************** 1241 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "Opening fire now, Captain," stated S.W.C. As the Ares emerged from the jump point, the weapons systems achieved lock-on on the three remaining Drakh warships, and began firing immediately. Two of the Drakh ships presented broadside aspects and began taking fire into their reactor sections. Less than two minutes later they were drifting in space with their primary power generators destroyed. The Drakh ship that presented a bow-on aspect to the Ares received a raking from its stem to the stern in most portions of the ship that could be observed from the Ares. The result of the raking weapons fire was to knock the ship's jump engines off-line. "Captain! There is a large number of Drakh fighters inbound on a CBDR course. I believe they have been programmed to ram us!" said a tracking console operator. "He is correct, Captain," added the S.W.C. "They are increasing their speed as they close with us." "How long until they arrive?" "Less than five minutes at their present rate of acceleration," replied S.W.C. "Finish destroying the cruiser/carriers. Mister Breen, get us the hell out of here at maximum thrust. If they programmed them to attack us, maybe we can lead them away from the other ships, then destroy them." As she was speaking, the Ares shook slightly from an impact. There were three more impacts in quick succession. "S.W.C., What's going on? Those were impacts. I thought you said we had at least five minutes?" "Those were so close when we came out of hyperspace, we didn't have time to get firing solutions, Captain. We're on the remainder." "Get me the other ships!" A few seconds later the screen at the front of CIC resolved into the images of the three warlock destroyer captains and a familiar Minbari male. "Gentlemen, I am assuming tactical command of the area around Mars. You will finish destroying the Drakh ships. You will also destroy anything ejected from these ships and that includes lifepods. Since it seems that the Drakh have reprogrammed their fighters to make Kamikaze runs on the Ares, we are going to lure them away from you and destroy them. Keep your fighters and ships out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, we've already hit one of you with friendly fire. My apologies for the damages. I will personally apologize to the families of any resulting casualties. Hello Sheraun. I'm sorry to be so late." "Captain, we have finished disabling the Drakh ships," stated the S.W.C. "Navigation can have all the power they need now." "I'm switching power from weapons to navigation, Captain!" Piped the engineer. "Mister Breen! Why are we still here?" "I'm working on that, Captain." ******************************************* 1243 hours on the bridge of the EAS Victoria: Captain Harper was looking at he image of Ivanova on her display screen. "Captain Ivanova, This Captain Harper aboard the EAS Victoria. I'm afraid we caught your fire. I have a large number of wounded and quite a few dead. Not all of them resulted from your fire. My medical facilities have been badly damaged and my best triage teams were amongst the casualties." "My sincerest apologies, Captain Harper. As soon as we finish destroying these Drakh fighters, Ares will return and coordinate the evacuation of yours and the Sinclair's casualties." Looking off-screen Susan said, "Comm, get busy on that. Get the other ships on the horn and get their casualty counts and injury severity. Also try to raise Mars Control. They may be able to help with the coordination of efforts. Also, contact the remaining whitestars and see what we can do for them. Pass to all ships present for them to get well clear of that last Drakh cruiser/carrier. I'm going to use it for a demonstration." The communications console operator was very busy carrying out Ivanova's orders, but managed a hurried, "Yes Sir." "Thank you for your consideration, Captain," responded Harper. ****************************************** 1245 hours in the flag mess aboard EAS Ares: "That didn't take very long," observed President Luchenko. "You expected anything else?" Asked Sanchez. That earned him an exasperated look from the President. On the display, the observers in the flag mess watched an incoming call from the EAS Santiago. "Ares this the EAS Santiago, Captain Richard Cashdollar, commanding. I don't recognize your authority to assume tactical command of this area. As the senior Captain, I refuse to relinquish tactical command of this area." "Oh my God, how stupid can you get?" Asked Captain Owens, of those present. "General Ivanova hesitated for at least thirty seconds before answering. "Captain Cashdollar, is your executive officer available?" This wasn't the response Cashdollar had expected. Without thinking, he answered, "Yes." A clean cut officer, sporting commanders insignia, stepped into the pickup range of the video unit on the Santiago's bridge. "Commander Mark Seivers at your service, Sir." "Commander Seivers, you are ordered to relieve Captain Cashdollar of operational command of EAS Santiago immediately, pending an inquiry into his behavior during this series of events, and pending his court martial for insubordination under fire. You will retain command until suitable relief is assigned. Do you understand these orders?" Said Susan in a toneless steady voice. "Yes Sir, Captain," replied Seivers. "I don't recognize your authority to relieve me of my command!" Snapped Cashdollar. "In for a credit, in for a kilogram," sighed Ivanova. "You now have two charges of insubordination to answer for, Captain Cashdollar. We are in a wartime situation this morning. Under the rules and regulations regarding these situations, I can have you brought aboard the Ares and summarily shot. Don't try my patience. You are relieved of command, and confined to your quarters until further notice. Anymore argument out of you and I will order Commander Seivers to throw you into the brig in irons. Do I make myself clear?" She snapped. At this point it belatedly occurred to Cashdollar that he could be in big trouble, but he wasn't going to back down. "What gives you the authority to relieve me of my command, Captain?" "In the first place, I am a line flag officer. In the second, I am the senior combat commander in the area and as such, your direct superior. In the third place, is the President of the EA and the CJCS, both of whom are watching this exchange along with most of the EA congressional leaders, the Commander of JAG, and last, but not least, the Secretary of Defense. If you don't stand down immediately, I will have you shot before the hour is out, and you have that as a solemn promise. Do I make myself clear?" "Perfectly," replied Cashdollar, turning to his exec. I relinquish command of the EAS Santiago to you, Commander Seivers. I will be in my quarters." "Commander Seivers, You are to impound all recordings of this mornings events and do data dumps from your computer systems. The JAG or his appointed representative will collect them later today. Now, I have a very large number of Drakh fighters to deal with. Comm, pass the last about data recordings to the other EAS ships." "Man, I never want to get on her bad side!" said Luchenko's aide. The remark elicited laughter out of everyone but President Luchenko. "Who does she think she is running roughshod over an earthforce captain like that?" Asked President Luchenko. "She thinks she is in command of this situation, and she is. Her rank, and the situation, gives her every right to act as she has. She has been decisive and correct in her actions. She could bring him aboard the Ares, and have the marines shoot him before a firing squad. Legally she has every right to do so," commented Charles Luchenko in a quiet voice. "Your husband is correct, Madam President," added Marsh. "I never knew that a commanding officer had that much authority," replied President Luchenko. "It is one of the things that makes being a commanding officer of a ship unique, Madam President," replied Sanchez. "We give them a great deal of authority, but in return, we demand absolute responsibility for what happens to their command, and for the orders they issue. Captain Cashdollar had the same authority in this area, until Susan rightly relieved him of command as the tactical commander of the area. He erred in not standing down when ordered to do so. An inquiry that most likely would have found him non-culpable will now end for sure in his court martial on the insubordination charges." "She does it, and gets away with it. He does it, and he gets hung. There is something wrong with this picture. Any of you generals could have carried out my order to relieve Ivanova of command of this ship, General Leftcourt," noted President Luchenko. "Her situation was different from his. It's simply, Madam President, that Susan was right and he is wrong," replied Leftcourt. "Sweetheart. Don't argue about something of which you are totally ignorant," chided her husband. That earned him a withering glare. He smiled sweetly in response. *********************** 1248 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "How are we doing S.W.C.?" Asked Ivanova. "We are keeping our distance Captain. They aren't gaining on us, but we have a lot of them coming at us from off our flanks. We've engaged them with the secondary and tertiary batteries. We are going to take some hits, Captain. There are too many of them and we have a lot of our weapons off line." "Rotate the ship to bring the most systems into play. Meanwhile, use the after batteries to start destroying the ones chasing us. Use the lowest power necessary to do the job. We don't want any more accidents." "Yes Sir, Captain." "Mister Breen. When we are finally through with these fighters, I want to be thirty thousand kilometers from that damaged Drakh cruiser/carrier. I have a demonstration planned." Flipping the selector switch on her communications panel, Ivanova called her chief medical officer (CMO). "Doctor, we are going to have mass casualties coming aboard within the hour. There may even be some aliens amongst them. Possibly Minbari and Drazi among others. I suggest you get set up to receive them in hanger bays one and two. Use the remaining marines and security if necessary. You may want to consider breaking out the MASH equipment we carry for the marines." She received an affirmative answer in response. *************************************** 1250 hours in the flag mess aboard EAS Ares: "Exactly what kind of demonstration does she have in mind, Tom?" Asked President Luchenko. Leftcourt looked at her, and it was evident that he had no clue. "I haven't the slightest idea, Madam President." Everyone else shook their heads 'no' as the President looked around the room. *************************************** 1325 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: Thirty five minutes had passed and the Ares had destroyed the last of the Drakh fighters, but not before being hit by a shower of debris from the fighters that been destroyed while making attacks from the ship's flanks. The huge ship did a slow pivot on her center of gravity and came to a relative stop facing the direction she had just come from. "S.W.C., target the Drakh cruiser/carrier," ordered Ivanova. "Engineer, feed the entire output of the ships power plants to the forward weapons arrays." "Captain, the array emitters won't last thirty seconds trying to handle that much power," noted the engineer. "I know. That's why the S.W.C. is only going to use a fifteen second burst." "I have a weapons lock and the laser range finder has allowed me to properly phase the emitters, Captain, but we've never shot at anything this far away before." "S.W.C., you have no faith. Whitestar 71, this is the Ares. Are your recording devices running?" "Yes, General Ivanova," replied Sheraun. "Then record the results of my demonstration with that Drakh ship. Fire when ready, S.W.C." ***************************************** 1326 hours on the bridge of the Drakh cruiser/carrier 'Hucluj': "We are almost finished getting one of our secondary emergency generators on line, Commander. We will be able to keep life support operating when we do," said the commander's engineering officer. "They have not shot at us for quite a while. I refuse to believe we are fortunate enough to have been granted a reprieve," responded the commander. It was his final conversation, as the first five hundred meters of his ship were virtually vaporized by a fifteen second burst from the main batteries of the EAS Ares. ************************** 1326 hours on the Bridge of the EAS Victoria: Captain Harper watched in stunned silence with the remainder of her bridge crew as the forward half of the Drakh cruiser/carrier vanished in a brilliant flash that seemed to last forever, but in reality lasted only fifteen seconds. Almost a minute later, Captain Harper commented, "If that had hit us, we'd be history. I guess we didn't really get the full effect of Ares' weapons fire." On the other ships' bridges the observers were speechless at what they witnessed. "Get our seriously injured personnel staged for transport to the Ares when she returns," ordered Captain Harper. "We need to get a handle on our transport capabilities. The Sinclair is in very bad shape. They're going to need all the help they can get." ************************* 1327 on the bridge of Whitestar 71: "What do you think?" Asked Sheraun of his bridge crew. "Impressive or what?" His executive officer just whistled in response. "I'm glad we don't have to face that." Looking around his bridge, Sheraun saw the sentiment expressed on the faces of his entire bridge crew. He had thought the Drakh dreadnought was deadly. Now he would have to rethink that evaluation. He immediately contacted Delenn on Minbar. "Entil'zha, I am sorry to bother you, but I just recorded this for General Ivanova." He played back the pertinent parts. "I thought you should know." "She said she could destroy one of our war cruisers. She was serious. Thank you, Sheraun. Please transmit all your records of today's activities at once." "Shall I provide copies to General Ivanova?" "Yes. That would be appropriate. Transmit your damage reports and casualty lists, also." "I will see to it, Entil'zha. One more thing, General Ivanova offered the use of her medical facilities for our injured. It is a mess here, Entil'zha." "It is appreciated that she does that. Accept her offer." Delenn broke the circuit. ******************************** 1327 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "Mister Breen, get us back to the battle scene ASAP. Jump in next to the dreadnought. I want to drop off Colonel Munoz and his men. Air Ops, get ready to launch fighters. I want our prize crew to have a working escort." "Opening jump point now, Captain." Over her intercom, Ivanova gave Munoz his final instructions and informed him that she had to pass on going with him. Other duties came first. Two short hyperspace jumps and fifteen minutes later, after launching two squadrons of fighters and dropping two breaching pods and four hundred marines off for the capture of the dreadnought, the Ares was again in the middle of the damaged earthforce destroyers and had maneuvered very close to the EAS Sinclair. A few minutes after that, she was launching shuttles, loaded with engineering personnel and medics to the Sinclair. ********************************* 1345 hours in the flag mess aboard EAS Ares: "It looks like the excitement is over, gentlemen," commented Mister White. "I thought she was going with Colonel Munoz over to the Drakh ship," noted the President. "She couldn't Ma'am. She is too busy doing my job," replied Owens. "What do you mean by that, Captain Owens?" Asked the President. "She is doing the job of her executive officer, in addition to her job as the commanding officer of the ship, Ma'am," he answered. "Her XO, that would have been me, isn't there to do his job." "I don't think there is anything to worry about. I understand she has extensive training and experience at being an executive officer," noted Mister White. "CIC, this is General Leftcourt. Can you hear me, Susan?" "One moment, General," replied Susan's voice. "This is the Captain speaking. Set condition two throughout the ship. Lunch will be delayed for about an hour. You were saying, General?" "I thought it might be nice to get a steward to rustle up some grub. I'm hungry from watching your display this morning." "I'll notify the wardroom, General. CIC out." "Mister White, do you still want to meet General Ivanova?" Asked Owens. "After she gets things under control and can spare the time. We don't seem to be going anywhere in any hurry," responded White. "However, General Marsh, If you might show me the recordings you possess." Charles looked at his wife and with a sigh of resigned determination, said, "Susan, as your husband and advisor, we need to talk in private." Owens got up and looked at Charles. "I can show you to an unused office space, Ma'am." The President and her husband followed him out of the flag mess. "Come with me, Mister White," said Marsh. "If anyone comes looking for me, I will be with General Ivanova," commented General Sanchez. Leftcourt looked at Luchenko's aide. "I suppose that leaves just us?" "Tell me General, why does the President hate General Ivanova so much? As best I can tell, Ivanova has never met her or ever done anything to her in any way? By the way, please call me Reese." "Susan fought on the rebel side during the recent civil war. In fact, she was the second in command. Sheridan made a deal that got her and all the others, except the telepath, Lyta Alexander, total amnesty. Afterward, Sheridan got her promoted to Captain, and she has done an exemplary job ever since. Susan is extremely independent, and says what she thinks, without much regard for the consequences. Other than that, I really don't have a clue," responded Leftcourt. "The fact that she does her own thing and gets away with it would be enough by itself. Would you care for some more coffee while we wait for lunch?" Leftcourt nodded 'yes', as he stepped over to the communications panel. Making contact with the communications center on the ship, he said, "I want a class one scrambled gold channel link with earthforce headquarters on Earth. I'm in the flag mess." "Yes Sir, General," responded the man on the screen. *********************************** 1355 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: Susan was relaxing in her command chair when General Sanchez came into CIC. She looked up at him and asked, "Are you here to relieve me? I told General Leftcourt that I would fight the ship for him, but then it would be over. The fighting is over." "That's between you and him. I'm curious about why you wanted to go over to the Drakh ship?" "I sent General Marsh's teep in my place. I wanted a shot at the Drakh commanding officer." Sanchez sat down in one of the available chairs in the flag area. After studying Susan for a minute, he asked, "What did you hope to gain? The Drakh wouldn't be likely to tell you anything. Would he?" "No, but I wasn't going to ask. You seem to be forgetting something about me. The thing that will mean the end of my career when it becomes known." "I know you can block telepaths, even a psi cop. So what?" "Blocking apparently isn't the limit of my abilities." "I don't understand?" "During the tactical planning session with my people this morning, I realized I knew what Lieutenant Breen was going to say before he said it. I don't know how. I just did." Sanchez studied the worried expression on Susan's face, and considered what Susan had just said. "I'll be damned. You aren't just a natural telepath blocker." Looking like someone who had just been given a death sentence, Susan, with weariness in her voice, said, "I'm a true telepath. According to my friend, Lyta, I may very well be the strongest natural human telepath ever discovered, or in my case undiscovered. That's how I was able to hide it from the Psi Corps all my life. The problem is that I'm untrained. Hopefully, my husband will be able to help me with that little problem. Seriously though, how long do you think they'll let me keep wearing this uniform after they learn that." "Personally, Susan, I don't have any problem with it, and I'm sure Leftcourt doesn't either. The reason I came in here is to talk about what Colonel Munoz's instructions are, as concerns the Drakh ship." "I instructed him to secure the ship, doing as little damage as possible. I also gave him instructions to kill all of the Drakh crew, except the senior bridge officers. That's if there are any left alive. I want to know any future plans they may be cognizant of." Holding up her hand to stop Sanchez's immediate response, she continued, "The Drakh crew will all be dead within a few hours from the radiation doses they received. I feel killing them quickly is more merciful than making them suffer the symptoms of a fatal dose of radiation poisoning. If the roles were reversed, I'd appreciate someone doing it for me." "I see. I suppose it would help if I made arrangements for our people to take over, after Colonel Munoz finishes his assignment?" "I'd appreciate that, General Sanchez. The President isn't going to want to hang around here forever, now that the excitement is over with." Getting up, Susan said, "S.W.C., you have the con. Get someone up here to relieve you, and get the CIC crew fed. I'll have my remote headphones on with this circuit open, if you need to contact me. I'm going down to the hanger bay and check on the transportation. I'll be stopping by to talk to the congressional delegation and to the news people." "Mind if I walk with you?" Asked Sanchez. "If you feel it's safe, General," she replied. "Captain, did you read my mind?" Asked Breen. "No Lieutenant, I didn't. During the meeting, I thought I heard your last comment in my head, just before you vocalized it. I can't read minds, Mister Breen." After Susan departed Breen looked at the S.W.C. and asked, "Did you have any suspicions that she was a telepath, Commander?" "It's news to me. But... after learning that she could block a psi cop's scan, I don't suppose we should be surprised." "How do you feel about it?" "I don't really know. There isn't anything about her, or the way she does things that's all that different from my former commanding officers. However, it may explain why she seems to understand her people better than any of my previous skippers. With that in mind, I'd have to say in her case, it's a very positive thing." ************************************ END PART 10 From: "Aubrey W. Adkins" Subject: Ivanova Part 11 of ___(WIP) Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 20:52:31 -0400 Ivanova Part 11 of ___(WIP) Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@home.com] Think of this as a space opera. All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners, PTEN, WB, JMS, and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are public domain. Rated PG-10 (Vocabulary) "..." = spoken words <...> = telepathic speech [...] = one's own thoughts, internal (...) = to set off items such as acronyms immediately identified by the phrase they stand for. '...' = to set off odd items??? {...} = italics *********************************************************************** In a passageway on the EAS Ares: "I think you just dropped a revelation on your CIC crew back there," said Sanchez. "I think in their hearts, they already knew. I've made a number of slips recently. Several times, I almost answered questions before they were asked. You can't keep making mistakes with the people who work for me, and not expect them to notice. These are very sharp people," replied Susan, thoughtfully. "It has occurred to me that you are now in the unenviable position of having defended and saved people who would joyfully cut you up into pieces and feed you to stray dogs." "You certainly have a way with words, General." "I don't understand how you've been able to keep it together all these years. You've always known how non- telepaths feel about telepaths. Hell, the last hundred years, of history documenting what has been done to telepaths, is a very black period in human history." "No blacker than any number of other periods, General. Humanity has always managed to justify castigating and persecuting groups or individuals that could be isolated from whatever was the prevailing mainstream." "You seem to handle it very well." "What choice do I have, General. It's not like I can just say, 'I don't want to be a telepath anymore', and make the ability disappear. It's like your skin color or your sex. You're stuck with it - and whatever that entails - good or bad." "How will they get you to submit to the periodic scans? The former psi cop said you can't be scanned, not even if you wanted to be." "I don't know. It won't matter anyway. Since, I've tendered my resignation, I won't have to sweat anything earthforce dreams up, and if Lyta hires me, I'm gone from Earth and EA space permanently." "That is one hell of a loss for earthforce." "Not really, General. I'm only one officer out of many." "The ones out of the many that are as valuable as you, I can count on one hand and have three fingers and a thumb left over. You're very unique, and your being a telepath just makes it more so. There has never been a telepathic general, or CJCS or President of the EA. You bring experience to the arena that absolutely none of the others, myself included, have. Your perspective is absolutely unique. That has to count for something." "We'll see when President Luchenko finds out." "Charles, her husband, will keep her on a short leash. She may be President, but she damned sure isn't omnipotent." "Here's the wardroom. I have to go and put these politicians in their places. They aren't going to like it." "I know that really bothers you," replied Sanchez, with sarcasm dripping from the statement. Susan gave him a look of resignation, such as a parent might give an obnoxious child. Then she entered the wardroom. Sanchez continued on his way sporting a smile of satisfaction on his face, secure in the knowledge that Susan would work out just fine, and thinking, [God, it's been so long since we had one like her.] ********************************** 1340 onboard the lead breaching pod: "There won't be any gravity, men. I want two lines strung behind us as we go. I want to be able to have rapid movement both to and from the breaching pod." Looking at the young telepath, he commented, "Captain Ivanova sent you for a reason, and that is to get any information from any of the Drakh officers we may find alive. I want you to stay back behind me and my men. Captain Ivanova will have my ass if I let you get hurt, and I value my ass. Comprende senor?" "Yes Sir, Colonel," responded the young telepath. A very large marine sitting next to him said, "Don't worry kid. We won't let anything happen to you. Captain Ivanova was supposed to be coming along. By the way, what's your name?" "Rodger Norton," replied the telepath. "I've sparred with Captain Ivanova. She's a real kick-ass woman. Kicked mine anyway." "You're kidding," responded Norton. "No he isn't," chimed in another marine. "He won the match, but she fractured his ribs." "Like I said, she's a real kick-ass woman," said the first marine. "That's the only kind of woman he likes," chimed to other marine. This elicited laughter from the other marines. "Okay people, look sharp. We'll be cutting the entryway hole in about a minute. Close up your suits. There are likely to be a very high radiation levels in there, and I don't want any unnecessary casualties!" Snapped Lieutenant Colonel Munoz. There was a jolt and the breaching pod attached itself to the dreadnought's hull and began cutting a hole through it. There was a flurry of activity as the marines finished putting on their helmets and checked one another's suits one final time. ****************************** 1350 hours in Earthdome Earthforce Headquarters: General Bart Maddy was sitting behind his desk and drinking his third cup of espresso since lunch. The doughnut on the paper plate was half eaten, and he was thinking of how long it would take to work off the extra calories he had taken in, when his communications panel beeped an incoming call. "General Maddy, I have General Leftcourt on gold channel one. Shall I put him through?" Asked an unidentified voice from the speaker. "By all means." At least the Ares wasn't destroyed. If Leftcourt was alive, they could reduce the readiness condition. "Afternoon Bart. As is obvious, we survived our trip to Mars. The immediate danger has been removed, but we probably won't get back until tomorrow or possibly the day after. You'll begin receiving reports before the hour is out. We have a lot of dead and injured people up here, and even though the Ares fared well, we have some badly damaged ships here. I'm going to work up a list of things that I need you to get action started on. Let the Vice-President know that all our political types are safe. I'm going to go now, so I can get the list started." "I know some of the things you're going to need, so I'll get people on this starting as soon as you ring off, General." ************************************** 1350 hours in the wardroom onboard EAS Ares: Ivanova stepped into the wardroom and closed the door behind her. "May I have your attention, please?" She asked over the buzz of ongoing conversations. An ensign at the back of the room announced, "Attention on deck! Captain in the wardroom!" This got everyone's attention. "I have some information to dispense, gentlemen. Your undivided attention will be appreciated," stated Ivanova. Some conversational buzz continued. "I said I wanted your undivided attention! If you don't shut up and listen, I'll have you removed to the brig!" She continued. "I'm going to lay down the ground rules for you to observe, until I can get you back to Earth." "When will that be, Captain?" Asked Senator Mathers. "If you will shut up and listen, instead of talking to hear your head rattle, you'll learn!" Snapped Ivanova. "Do you know who I am, Captain!" Mathers retorted. "I don't give a damn at this particular moment, but if you don't shut up and listen, you will get to examine this ship's brig facilities from the inside! Now one more word out of you, and I'll have security remove you! If you understand, just nod your head!" Snapped Susan, right back at him. Mathers decided that she would do exactly what she said, and nodded his head, yes. "Now that I have your attention," said Ivanova, "I'll continue. You were supposed to come aboard the Ares, get a guided tour, a nice lunch and attend the change of command ceremony that was scheduled for about ten minutes or so from now. Obviously, that scenario has been discarded. If you don't already know, we had to respond to a minor emergency at Mars this morning. We just finished the first part of the response. If that were all there was to it, we could be back in Earth orbit in time for you to be home for supper. However, that's not all there is to it. Several earthforce ships were damaged. We are rendering assistance as best we can, and this will require our remaining in orbit around Mars. I will try and get your tour restarted as soon as I can. Because of problems encountered today, we will be changing your tour accordingly. We are using our hanger decks for medical purposes and they are off-limits to all unauthorized personnel. This means you and anyone else not a member of this ship's medical staff. I can't tell you how long we will remain here until I learn more about the medical situation. We don't know what else to expect, so the ship is remaining at modified general quarters. When the situation changes, I will inform you. If you want to try to make other arrangements to get back to Earth, I will tell you now, Mars is over one-hundred and twenty-eight million kilometers from Earth at the present time. A normal space shuttle will take a week and a half to get there. We should be returning in the next couple of days. I'm sure that General Leftcourt will schedule a complete briefing about this situation for you, the President and the news people. You can ask questions at that time." "You aren't going to give us a chance to ask any questions, Captain?" Asked Mathers. "That's what I just said. Tell me, Senator, is there something wrong with your hearing?" Inquired Ivanova. "Mrs. Lukens, you can check on your son. He is asleep, or he was asleep in my stateroom. Mary may have already fed him. I have things to do, gentlemen. Good day." With that Ivanova exited the wardroom. Seething, Mathers fumed, "Just who in the hell does she think she is?" "As near as I can tell, Senator Mathers, she thinks she is in charge of this ship," replied Mrs. Lukens. Egan jumped in and said, "She is in charge, Senator Mathers. I firmly believe her when she said she would throw people in the brig. After what we have witnessed, I wouldn't recommend baiting the good general. It could be hazardous to your health --- literally." ********************************************** 1405 hours in the main gymnasium onboard EAS Ares: Susan walked into the gym and looked over the reporters. These people made her feel sick at her stomach. She had learned the hard way that news reporters only wanted a story, regardless of any associated consequences. With this thought firmly in mind, she said, "Could I have your attention for a few minutes, please?" No one seemed to be paying any attention to her. She reached for her communications system remote control and set in a number. Then she repeated her request. This time it blared from the speakers mounted high up on the gym walls. This got her everyone's attention. "I am going to lay out some ground rules for the rest of the time you are aboard the Ares." Then she read them the same riot act that she had read the congressional delegation with a few additions. "There will be absolutely no picture taking either in the hanger bays or in the vicinity of the hanger bays. I won't have the injured personnel be exploited by any of you." Holding up her hand at the grumbling that was starting, she continued. "If you violate these limits that I have set, you will be taken to the brig, and your recording equipment will be seized and destroyed on the spot. None of these points are open for any debate. General Leftcourt will be holding a briefing for you people, the President and the congressional delegation. Save your questions for the briefing." With that she departed the gymnasium and headed for the hanger bays. The lieutenant who was watching from the back of the gym said, "I wouldn't ignore the Captain's warnings. She means every word she says." "She's not very friendly, Lieutenant," commented one of the reporters. "Maybe it's the loss of several thousand earthforce personnel and the wounding of a thousand or more of them, along with the loss of the three ships and the damage to the others. There is something about that much death and destruction that ruins our day, Sir. Besides, I have a feeling you will get to see the hanger bays before this is all over with." ******************************* 1415 in Ares' hanger bay one: Susan walked into hanger bay one and was introduced to an apparent plethora of personnel hurrying from place to place in what at first appeared to be condition of chaos. Closer scrutiny revealed the it was not chaos, but a fairly well organized effort. Gurneys were being wheeled in and lined up with racks attached to hold saline and glucose bottles and blood bags. In the middle of the hubbub Captain Louise Harris, M.D., CMO of the EAS Ares, was watching the efforts with great interest, occasionally making a comment, or barking an order to keep things moving. "Having a good time Lou?" Asked Ivanova. "No. I'm glad you insisted on all the drills while we were on deployment. We have almost everything we need, Captain. We have been building up an impressive supply of plasma, but we are going to need a hell of a lot more fresh blood than we have on hand. Our inventory shows that we have about two thousand pints in storage. I've been going over the numbers of serious casualties we're expecting and that isn't going to be nearly enough. I have queried the other ships. But even with what we can get from them we are probably going to be short. We have sent a request to the Mars government, but I haven't heard anything from them, yet. What's worse is that we don't have any blood to treat the aliens we'll be getting from the whitestars. No, Susan, I'm definitely not having a good time. However, it is going to be very interesting," replied Harris. "My xenobiologist is brand new. He just finished his internship. The wounded we're getting from the whitestars run the gamut of races that are IA members. He is going to go nuts. I'm also having security, supplemented by the marines, set up a perimeter to keep non-medical personnel out of the hanger bays." "That's a good idea. As for getting blood from the Mars government, we have President Luchenko on board. Let's have her call the President of the Mars colonies and see if she is worth her salt." "Any efforts will be greatly appreciated, Captain." Susan activated her remote communications unit and called CIC. "Locate the President and patch me through to her." As Susan was leaving the hanger bay, the President's voice came over her headset. She explained what the CMO needed, and about bargaining with Mars. Luchenko didn't seem to too happy about the situation. Susan apologized for imposing on the President's time and broke the circuit. Then she called the communications center and ordered that an unencrypted circuit be set up between her stateroom and the President of Edgar Industries on Mars, Michael Garibaldi. ************************************** 1415 in executive officer's stateroom/office: Charles Luchenko was reciting the story of the Vorlon/Shadow War to his wife. He had learned this from John Sheridan, in addition to a great deal of information about the past misadventures of the indomitable Susan Ivanova, including her brush with death, and how she escaped the appointment. The only part Sheridan hadn't told him about was the part that Jeffery Sinclair had played, and its repercussions with the Minbari. "Charles, this sounds like some kind of tale from the Arabian Nights. A being that is as old as the universe? Give me a break!" retorted his wife. "It's not a tale, Susan. I had some discrete checks made into the things I could, and they all check out. If you want, I will happily show you what was checked and the results. It is a fact that Ivanova was so badly injured during the battle with Clark's advanced destroyer group that even the Minbari doctors couldn't help her. They had given her less than a week to live. We found references to the healing/execution machine in years-old records in the Babylon 5 computer banks, which, by the way, holds the records of all court proceedings that have occurred there since the station went operational. Doctor Franklin's records were especially interesting." "I still don't see any purpose to why you are telling me all this. Do you expect me to give her a hug, and tell her I'm sorry about how I've interacted with her? No way, Charles. It's just not going to happen. She is a conceited, spoiled brat that has been allowed to progress farther up the ladder than she should have. When I get finished, with her, her career will be nonexistent." "I'm sorry to hear that, Susan. You're painting some very good people into an intolerable corner." Sneering at her husband, she said, "Really. Am I supposed to act scared, or what?" "That won't be necessary, however, you might entertain the thought of updating your resume as soon as we get back to Earth." "Are you threatening me?" "Not at all, Sweetheart. I have given you many reasons to reconsider your situation with Ivanova. Somehow, I don't think anything I can say at this point will have any effect on you." She considered that his last statement was essentially an admission of defeat. He never gave up this easily. Something serious was afoot, and she had no clue as to what it might be, but, somehow, it revolved around Susan Ivanova. She thought about all that he had told her in the last fifteen or twenty minutes and had to admit that if it were all true, then Susan Ivanova was one hell of a lucky person, if luck were the proper term. Somehow, she didn't believe that either. Her observations of Ivanova since this morning was that the woman was extremely competent, even if she did make her want to scream. Thinking back to how Ivanova had behaved about the attack on Babylon 5, she began to grudgingly accept that maybe Ivanova would be the type of person who could stare down a being that could kill you with a stray thought. "While you're thinking over what I've just finished telling you, you might as well read this, and pay particular attention to the charts and graphs," said Charles Luchenko, getting up off the couch to hand his wife a data pad. She had appropriated the chair behind the XO's desk. President Luchenko had been studying the information on the data pad for about five minutes when the communications panel signaled an incoming call. "Who could be calling? Asked President Luchenko, rhetorically. Charles stepped over to the panel and keyed it to accept the call. "XO's office, this is CIC. Is President Luchenko down there?" "Who wants to know?" Queried the President. "Captain Ivanova is trying to reach you, Ma'am." "Put her through," replied Charles Luchenko. "Madam President. I've conferred with my CMO about our preparations for providing medical assistance to the ships present. We have everything we need except a sufficient supply of whole blood. We have canvassed the ships present and still come up short. My CMO has asked me to request any assistance you might be able to provide in helping to obtain additional blood supplies from the Mars government," stated Ivanova. "I am afraid that dealing with the Mars government in such a fashion is quite outside of accepted protocol, Captain. The best I can do is make our ambassador aware of the situation and let him handle it through the proper diplomatic channels," responded President Luchenko. "I understand, Madam President. My apologies for imposing on your time." Then she broke the circuit. "Do you understand what you just did?" Asked her husband. "I let her know that she doesn't give all the orders around here." "She wasn't giving orders. She was asking for help. There are going to probably be more that a thousand casualties come aboard this ship and they will need all the help they can get. This ship's records contain virtually every word and image that has passed over the communications circuits on the ship. I have no doubts that this last one will be recorded somewhere." "So what?" "You read and studied the information contained in that data pad. Why do you think our party went to the trouble to assemble it? They did it because we learned that the opposition had already done one for themselves. They are trying to find a way to run her against our candidate next election. That candidate, at present, is surely going to be you. If they manage to convince her to run, you are out. That's what those graphs and tables literally scream. In a contest with Ivanova as your opponent, no matter which way we juggle the numbers, you will get buried. Do you think we will allow that if we can prevent it? Now you blow the chance to get your name in the headlines by helping with this blood problem. What are you thinking with?" "I hate Susan Ivanova, and that's all there is to it." "She hates you, too, but she doesn't let it interfere with her doing her job. What's with you, anyway? You must have a political death wish, so I'm going to be blunt. Your actions over the last year have some very important people asking why they ever supported you. It's no skin off my nose, because I'm not running for anything, but for what it's worth, you had better get your act together. I can't be any plainer than that. Last, but not least, Susan Ivanova doesn't belong to any political party, and if push comes to shove, our people are not above trying to convince her to head up our ticket. If she runs, she wins, period. So, whoever gets her is probably going to get both houses of the legislature to boot." His wife looked at him with an expression of disbelief on her face, but said nothing. ****************************************************** 1435 in Ivanova's stateroom/office: By the time Susan had sat down behind her desk with a cup of hot tea, the communications panel was signaling an incoming call. "Accept call!" "Acceptance requires input of commanding officer's personal decryption code," intoned the computer voice from the communications panel. [What the hell? Who could possibly be calling me using my personal code?] thought Susan thoroughly puzzled by the situation. After thinking about if for a few seconds, she began to feel a knot of fear and apprehension start to grow in her belly. [Only earthforce headquarters would be calling using my personal code.] A few seconds later her apprehension turned to dread. Personal codes were only used for transmissions that were very private for the recipient only. It prevented the ship's communicators from eavesdropping on private communications. She knew before she entered her code that it almost certainly had to be about Charles. Hoping against what she knew was coming, and remembering what always seemed to happen when she got into a relationship, she said, "Decode using Ivanova code charlie-alpha-five-kilo-x-ray-x-ray-three-seven-golf-golf-sierra." The image of an earthforce general replaced the Ares logo on the display. "Captain Ivanova. I am General Bart Maddy... ." Cutting him off in mid sentence, Susan Asked, "How did it happen, General Maddy?" The expression on Maddy's face at the question was shock. Before he could respond, Susan continued, "Charles has been killed hasn't he?" Maddy was at a loss for words. His image just stared out of the display, speechless. "General, the only reason you would call me at this time using my private code would be if it were something very personal. The only thing I can think of that would meet that criteria at this time would be bad news about my husband. If he were only injured, you would have simply sent a message. Therefore, I assume he has been killed." If Susan could have seen the officers in the area of Maddy's communication system, she would have seen three earthforce captains with stunned expressions dominating their faces in addition to the stunned general. "I'm waiting, General Maddy," commented Susan. "Unfortunately, you are correct, Captain Ivanova. Your husband was killed in an automobile accident at ten-twenty hours your time this morning. I am very sorry." "Thank you, General Maddy. I appreciate the private call. I have my hands full with casualties from four warlocks and several whitestars, and I really didn't need this. This is quickly turning into a typical Susan Ivanova bad-hair day." Maddy's image vanished to be replaced with the smiling face of Michael Garibaldi. "Good morning, Susan. What can I do for you?" Fighting back tears, Susan almost choked when she spoke. "I have some problems, Mike. My CMO tells me we have too many casualties for the available blood supply. We're going to be getting wounded personnel from the whitestars and those will include any number of non-humans. I was hoping you could use your influence to scrape up some more blood and maybe even some doctors. I'll see to it that everything is paid for, including labor costs of the doctors. I'm not asking for any freebies. I have three ships destroyed and four more shot all to hell, not including the whitestars. Several of them have been destroyed or very badly damaged. The others have all been damaged to some extent. Even we took some minor damage." "I'll get my people on it immediately. It would help if we could talk directly to your CMO. By the way, congratulations on your recent marriage." "I'll keep this channel open and have her tied into it." Then she added, "Michael, we have President Luchenko on board. Would you believe she refused to call the President of Mars and ask for assistance. Said it would breach protocol." Sneering, Susan continued, "She offered to contact her ambassador and let him call your ambassador and go through proper channels." "You went into combat with the Earth Alliance President on board? I wish my balls were that big!" Five minutes later Susan's CMO was in communication with Robert Bryson, Michael's general purpose, do it all, handyman / spook. "I owe you big time, Michael," said Susan just before she signed off the channel. In his office on Mars, Garibaldi looked at the image of Susan's CMO as she gave information to Bryson, and thought to himself, [Like hell you do. We owe you everything.] He also noted that she had apparently ignored his congratulations on her marriage. He made a mental note to ask her about it when he communicated with her again. ********************************** 1445 in the XO's stateroom/office: "I need to contact Earthdome, Charles. By now the place must be a madhouse, what with our sudden departure and now this situation." Charles stepped over to the communications panel and very shortly had a gold channel open with the President's official office. The press secretary was looking out of the display at him. "Mister Addley, just the fellow the President is looking for." "If you don't mind, Charles, I want this to be private." Charles left the stateroom and walked down the passageway to the flag mess. ********************************** 1450 in the flag mess: Leftcourt was talking with Bart Maddy on a gold channel when Charles Luchenko came into the room. "Bart, I believe you know Charles. He's getting an ulcer today." "Not really, Tom, but the stomach acid is having a field day," replied Charles. "I don't have the numbers yet, Bart, but from what I can gather we are going to have close to two thousand casualties to deal with. I'll try and get better figures from the Ship's CMO when she can spare me a minute. I'm not going to bother her when she's hip deep in bodies." "You're lucky, General. You have the only combatant in earthforce that is fully equipped to handle mass casualties, and you have the most experienced CMO in earthforce. She has seen thousands of combat casualties in her time. Some of us are thinking it's long past time when she should have been wearing a star." "I know how fortunate we are this time. If the Ares wasn't here, we would be losing most of these people. The other ships have been so badly damaged that their medical facilities are almost unusable, for a variety of reasons. I'm betting the Sinclair is going to be a total loss. The other three warlocks are bad, and it may be a week or more before we can get a good handle on them." "Nothing personal, General, but better you than me," remarked Maddy. "I'll be calling back as soon as anything changes, Bart. Drink one for me." "This is a mess, Tom. The political fallout is going to look like someone dropped a dirty nuke on the President's desk," commented Maddy, as he signed off. "It didn't have to be that way. You know she's going to try to hang Ivanova out to dry over this. She knows she needs the points. Her poll figures have become downright dismal," noted Leftcourt, after Maddy had broke the circuit. "It may be worse than that. I showed her this, in the hopes it would cause her to see some kind of reason for changing her tactics with the Captain," said Charles. "Let me see that, please." Charles handed Leftcourt the data pad. "I think you will find it interesting reading." Leftcourt spent the next five minutes reading the information from the data pad screen. Occasionally, Leftcourt looked up at him with a perplexed expression on his face. Finally he asked, "Would you mind if I showed this to someone else?" "Who'd you have in mind?" "The center attraction of course." "I thought you wanted to keep her on active duty. Someone told me you thought that in a couple of years you could slide her in as your replacement. I'd think there would be screams of indignation from your brethren about that." "Only for a little while. If she does as well as I think she can, at the assignments I have planned for her, there won't be much more than a peep, and that'll be from whatever Clark holdovers remain on active duty. If I have my way about it, they'll all be gone, including me, after she takes over of course." "You know that both major parties, and any other political entity worth a damn. are going to be dogging her. She doesn't have any known party affiliation, so she's up for grabs. Hell, Tom, even an endorsement from her would be worth five or ten percent of the vote. She might even be able to convince the voters who would normally not bother to get out and vote. For someone who rarely gets her name in the news, she surely has a large following. That should tell anyone with a brain cell something." "Ivanova is one of those people that respond to dogging by digging in their heels. Whoever gets her is going to have to do it on her terms. Do you seriously think any of the political parties will stand for that?" "Tom, for a sure win that would have coattails long enough to get control of the legislature at the same time, any of them would pimp their own mother. Remember, they are politicians." "Don't let your wife hear you say that." "Why not. It won't be the first time I've reminded her of it." "Charles, you... are a work of art." "Thank you... I think." ********************************** 1530 somewhere in a passageway on the dreadnought: "Colonel Munoz," asked Norton, "Could we capture one of these Drakh alive. I might be able to pull the location of their command center from its mind. It would save us some time." "You people heard the man. He wants one alive," said Munoz. The marines had lost four of their number to Drakh resistance. Three had been wounded and one killed. The marines had during this time killed more that a hundred Drakh. In truth, some of the Drakh had been barely breathing. There had not been much resistance, and what there was had been was sporadic. PPG type of weapons fire did not need someone in good condition to be able to kill you. It only required the strength to aim the weapon and pull the trigger. Within fifteen minutes the marines had captured three Drakh alive and Norton had scanned them. He had gotten not only the location of the command center, but had been fortunate enough to get images of the commanding officer and his first and second in command. Norton began to believe that their objective concerning the Drakh future plans might actually be achievable. ********************************** 1530 hours in the flag mess aboard EAS Ares: "Madam President, we planned on you returning this afternoon. The meetings we have scheduled for tomorrow can't be rescheduled," pleaded Luchenko's chief of staff. "We have or are taking onboard in excess of a thousand wounded from the ships in the area. There is no way General Ivanova is going to get underway until this crises is under control, and as much as I hate to agree with her, she is correct. Those meetings are for trades purposes. The Ares is involved in a lifesaving mission. Do the math Fred. If I manage to make her return to Earth, everything we are working for is history, as will be my career and quite likely our party's hopes in the next election. I'm afraid the right thing to do is also the politically expedient thing, too." "It's your call, of course, Madam President. It's just that I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't at least advance the point." "If things should change, you will be the first one I notify." ******************************* 1600 in hanger bay two: Doctor Louise Harris was operating on her third patient. They had already lost four human patients, since beginning to receive the worst of the wounded. She had been lucky. She had managed to resuscitate her second patient who had suffered two cardiac arrests during his surgery. Her young xenobiologist had already worked on members of three different races. He was holding up well, all things considered. A young marine in medical garb and wearing a mask, her present connection with the communications center, stepped in close and informed her. "Dr. Harris, the first shuttle from Mars just launched. It is carrying one thousand units of whole blood, including blood for Narns, Drazi, Centauri and Pak'ma rha. They are bringing eight doctors with experience in treating war injuries." Doctor Harris nodded acknowledgment and continued her operating. ********************************** 1630 somewhere in a passageway on the dreadnought: "Okay men. The command and control center (C&CC) is on the other side of that door. We'll try forcing it open manually. I don't want to destroy anything with explosives if we can avoid it. Mister Norton, you stay well back until we have secured the area," ordered Lieutenant Colonel Munoz. Norton watched as the marines quickly drilled a series of holes in the door to give purchase to the jacks and other equipment they had assembled in front of the door. The manually operated hydraulic equipment had already been used to force a couple of doors, more for drill than necessity. It took all of fifteen minutes to force the door open. The marines quickly moved through the door. There was no evidence of resistance, which meant that all inside were either already dead or too weak to offer any resistance. Two minutes after Munoz and his marines had entered the C&CC, Norton was called inside. The only light available, besides the illumination provided by the head lamps worn by the marines, was a very low red glow from hidden emergency lighting. Norton was greeted by a sight of console operators either already dead at their consoles from the radiation, or from mercy shots to the head by Munoz's troops. There were only three Drakh in the space that were still alive and they obviously wouldn't be that way for very long. Norton stepped over to the nearest Drakh and recognized him as the intelligence officer. Norton stood in front of the Drakh and reached out and touched the side of his head. He had scanned several other Drakh for practice and to familiarize himself with their thought patterns. His experiences had made him aware that if these Drakh weren't so close to death he wouldn't be able to scan them. Concentrating he pushed into the Drakh's mind. It was a mess. The fellow was in the process of dying. Quickly, Norton pushed as hard as he could. He got a fleeting image of Earth and humanity being destroyed, but before he could get more than the vague impression he was getting, the Drakh died. Very quickly, Norton stepped over to the Drakh commander. He didn't hesitate to push as hard as possible to scan the being. Once again all he could get was a vague impression of the destruction of Earth and Humanity. However, this time he got a clear image of the planet exploding. A few moments later the Drakh died with what could only be a smile on his lips. "Did you get anything useful, Mister Norton?" Asked Munoz. "I don't think so, Colonel. They were too far gone. I only got impressions, but they are enough to give me nightmares," replied Norton. Munoz spoke softly into his suit microphone and made a short report to CIC on the Ares. ************************************* 1645 in Ivanova's stateroom/office: Susan's headset ear-piece came alive with a voice from CIC. "Captain Ivanova, we have just been informed by Colonel Munoz that they have located the Drakh ship's C&C and are trying to break into it. They have suffered four casualties so far, with one dead. He says he'll call again after they capture the C&C. He also said that adding Mister Norton to his team is turning out to have been an excellent idea." Susan acknowledged the report and immediately made a mental note to make sure General Marsh was made aware of Norton's contributions. Making sure telepaths got all the good press possible wouldn't hurt their image. She had spent the last two hours writing reports and making recordings to be added to the other commanding officer's messages to the relatives of personnel who had been killed by her friendly fire. [Odd about calling it 'friendly' fire, since it is anything but friendly,] she thought to herself. Her introspection and thoughts about Charles were interrupted by a knock on her door. "Enter!" General Leftcourt entered the room and sat down on her couch. She didn't even look up. "Just the man I need. I promised the congressmen and news people that you would give them a briefing on today's activities and what they can't write about. Now, what can I do for you, General?" "I thought I might check and see how the report writing is coming along. You obligated me to give these people a briefing? When did I go to work for you?" "Tell me another one, General, and remember, lying to a telepath is a waste of time. When I said you would give them a briefing, I assumed you would have someone on your staff do it." "Are you reading my mind? I can do that. Manuel can see to it. He's the resident spook, so to speak." "No I didn't read your mind, I have too many other things to do without wasting my time doing that. Besides, what makes you think you know anything that I'd be interested in?" "I'm glad you are in a good mood." "I'm not. I'm in a miserable mood, General. Now, what can I do for you?" "You might try being civil." Susan raised her head and looked at him. He noticed the evidence of crying in her eyes. "Something is very wrong. What is it, Susan?" "When was the last time you talked to General Maddy, General?" "About fifteen minutes ago. He's handling preparations for meeting us when we get back to Earth and taking the wounded off our hands. He's also coordinating estimates and actions for the damaged warlocks. He is doing there, what you've been doing here, busting ass to make the best of very bad situation. My hats off to you for the response of the Mars government to our request for assistance. You obviously know some real movers and shakers there." "Do you know what the President's response to my request for assistance in getting Mars government to aid us was?" "Her husband told me. I don't know what is happening to her. She used to be a tough bird and have good instincts about situations surrounding her. He's getting very irritated about her behavior." "She's a politician. What's there to be disappointed about? That's the trouble with most people. They really expect politicians to act with dignity and responsibility," she laughed. It was not a lighthearted humorous laugh. "What kind of politician would you make, Susan?" She looked at him like he was crazy. "I couldn't be a politician, General. You have to sell your soul to special interests, and let yourself be 'handled' by the 'pros'. I can't do that. I do things my own way. I pay the piper, and I damn well expect to tell him what to play. You don't last long in the political arena with that philosophy. Give me a good ten-to-one odds against me in a shoot-out with the Drakh any day." "You only feel that way because it's what you've been trained for. I think you would make a very good politician, and so do a good many others." When he said that, Susan looked up at him again, pushed the data pad away and asked, "Just what are you driving at, General Leftcourt? I don't think I like where this conversation is going." "Where is this conversation going?" Looking thoughtfully at him, she replied, "You tell me." Then she reclaimed the data pad and resumed entering data. Leftcourt stood at the door and turned and asked, "If you think this is the last you are going to hear about this, you are fooling yourself, because it isn't." Under her breath, Susan mumbled, "God, get me out of this loony bin." As he pulled the door shut on his way out, Leftcourt tossed back, "I heard that." Susan was already lost in what she was entering into the data pad. Later, she would notice a data pad on the couch, where none had been before. ******************************** 1700 in a passageway on the Ares: "Captain Owens?" Asked George White, catching up with Pat Owens, "If it's possible, I'd like to speak with General Wayne. I know she's been busy, but I only need a few minutes." "Mister White, I just saw and spoke to General Leftcourt. Captain Ivanova is in no mood to see anyone. However, you impress me as a man who is not easily swayed from a mission. So, I'm going to take you to her stateroom. Just let me get a few hundred meters away before you knock on her door." "No problem, Captain. There's no reason for you to catch hell because of me." A few minutes later, Owens pointed to the door to Susan's stateroom. "This is it, Mister White. You're on your own." White waited until Owens was well down the corridor then he knocked on the door. *********************************** 1710 in Ivanova's stateroom/office: "Captain Sheraun, I was wondering if I could ask a favor," said Susan to the image on her communications display screen. "If I can do it, just ask." Susan was interrupted by a knock on her door. "Enter!" She ordered. George White opened her door and steeped inside. "If I might have a few minutes of your time, General Wayne?" "Who might you be?" "Your attorney. My name is George White. I represent... ." Susan cut him off with a motion of her hand. "In a minute, Mister White. Let me finish with Captain Sheraun first. What I need is a way of getting President Luchenko and the politicians with her back to Earth ASAP. They're in my way, but that won't be what I tell them to get rid of them. I have a bunch of news people over here too, but I can't think of a really good reason to send them packing." "We can carry them back in a shuttle. You load them up, we will transport them, with them staying in the shuttle. It's only a short jump to Earth orbit. We can drop them low enough in the atmosphere to prevent anyone getting a shot at them. Just give me at least fifteen minutes warning." "Thank you Sheraun." Susan broke the circuit and turned to face White. "My attorney?" "Most certainly. My firm has been retained to represent you in the lawsuit that the Arklands have filed." "Stand up, Mister White, and turn around slowly, please?" White did as she requested. "Mister White, I can't afford your shoeshine expenses, much less pay your fee." "You don't have to. It's already been funded by a group of people who only identified themselves as being concerned friends of yours." "You mean, you don't even know who they are?" "That's correct. They set up a blind account in a Mars bank that has a branch in Earthdome. We submit expense receipts to the bank manager and the funds are transferred into our accounts. The manager did tell us that there was about thirty million credits in that account. Whoever they are, money is apparently no object." "Well, tell me about this Arkland lawsuit." White handed her the lawsuit papers in response. "This will explain what the Arklands want. After you read the papers, we'll talk." ****************************************** 1710 in the flag mess: "General Leftcourt, I have some meetings tomorrow that I absolutely have to attend. I can't reschedule them," said President Luchenko. "Have you informed Susan of your situation?" "She has a problem dealing with her," commented Charles Luchenko. "I assume you are aware that we are in the process of taking wounded earthforce personnel aboard for treatment," replied Leftcourt. "I'm aware that I have to get back to Earth immediately, General. There are three warlock destroyers here that can still get underway," shot back the President. "I am aware. None of their jump engines are functioning at this time. It wouldn't hurt you to inform Susan of your plight. She is not without resources. After all, there is a shuttle on its way here from Mars, carrying much needed blood and additional doctors." "She works for you, General Leftcourt. You order her to take us back to Earth." Leftcourt stepped over to the communications station and called Ivanova's stateroom. ************************************** 1713 in Ivanova's stateroom/office: Susan was engrossed in reading the court papers, White had handed to her, when the communications panel chirped an incoming call. "Accept call!" "Susan, we have a problem," said Leftcourt's image from the communications display. Studying the image for a few seconds, Susan responded, "Do you have a frog in your pocket, General?" Leftcourt looked puzzled by the response. "We have a problem. The President absolutely has to get back to Earth before tomorrow. She has some meetings that can't be rescheduled. After all, she would have already been back if this situation hadn't come up." "When would be most convenient, General?" Asked Susan. Her reply had left Leftcourt speechless. His mouth moved, but no sound came forth. Then gaining his composure, he said, "I don't understand?" Ivanova replied, "You said we have a problem. I asked if you had a frog in your pocket, and you didn't answer. Then you again said we had a problem, in that the President absolutely had to get back to Earth. Then I asked you, when would be convenient. I think that about covers it." "What do you mean by when would be convenient?" "I'll make it really simple, General Leftcourt. When does she want to leave?" Answered Ivanova. "Also, are you going to arrange a briefing for her and her entourage before they leave?" "I'll get back to you," he replied breaking the connection. "Are you always this far ahead of the people around you?" Asked White. "Not usually. I was XO of Babylon for just over four years. During that time I had to deal with alien ambassadors, their minions and what not for a quarter of a million beings every day, in addition the crap Earth-Gov threw at us. That's why I asked Sheraun to supply transportation for them. Sort of cut them off at the pass, so to speak." White looked at her questioningly. "It's a cliche from old western movies. My friend Michael Garibaldi is a old time movie buff." Saying this, she returned to reading the legal papers. ****************************** 1716 in the flag mess: "I suppose the next question is when do you want to leave?" "When is this briefing she mentioned?" Asked the President. "Manuel told me he would be ready before 1800 hours. It will take about forty minutes or so, not counting questions." "Questions?" "I figure the senators and news people are going to have some questions. It gives us a chance to further define what is out of bounds due to security considerations." "Then, it isn't asking too much to be headed back toward Earth by 2000 hours, Is it?" "I shouldn't think so." "Just make sure it doesn't, General. Leftcourt stopped at the door on his way out of the room, turned and asked, "Don't you wonder that she already had arranged transportation?" Then he closed the door on his way out. "He has a valid point. How did she know to have transportation already arranged for, and better yet, how did she arrange it?" Asked Charles Luchenko. "You are smitten by the good general, Charles." "I don't think so. She has been several steps ahead of the situation at every turn today. Once and I think luck, twice and I think fantastic luck, more than that smacks of experience, foresight and extreme competence." "Why are all you men so taken with her? Is it simply because she has a nice ass, or what?" "A better question is why are you the only one blind to her accomplishments and obvious abilities?" The President fumed. "Hating her isn't going to change reality... not in a million years. Your hatred is something I simply cannot fathom. She has never done anything to you. You only met her for the first time this morning. It makes no sense whatsoever." "I don't have to explain myself to you. And... I don't particularly care what you think about the matter." ******************************** END PART 11 From: "Aubrey W. Adkins" Subject: Ivanova Part 12 of ___(WIP) Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 17:49:35 -0400 Ivanova Part 12 of ___(WIP) Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@home.com] Think of this as a space opera. All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners, PTEN, WB, JMS, and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are public domain. Rated PG-10 (Vocabulary) "..." = spoken words <...> = telepathic speech [...] = one's own thoughts, internal (...) = to set off items such as acronyms immediately identified by the phrase they stand for. '...' = to set off odd items??? {...} = italics *********************************************************************** 1725 in Ivanova's stateroom: Susan had finished reading the legal papers, and looked across her office at White. "They're suing me for more than I'll make in several lifetimes. What's the point?" "The money is just an issue that forces us to go to court. I think their real intention is to use the media circus this will generate to trash President Luchenko, the general officer corps and the military in general. They're part of the xenophobic faction that would like to force Earth to withdraw from the IA and any dealings with aliens and their governments." "Then I have become a really {hot} political potato. Every time I think I'm getting a step ahead, the universe sees fit to kick me in the teeth, very viciously." "It's not all that bad, General Wayne. The recordings that General Marsh gave me clearly shows that the whole idea of the match was Arkland's idea to escape punishment for charges that are clearly insubordination, possibly attempted mutiny and treason. I think his parents will rethink their position when they become aware of what we have on him." "This lawsuit is only a nuisance. I'm referring to something else completely, Mister White. And… please call me Susan." "Is this other thing personal, or would you want to talk about it. As your attorney, anything you say to me is confidential, and even a court of law can't force me to reveal it." "Yes, it's personal, but I want to talk to someone who has no connection to any of it. You fill that bill." Then she told him about her many tragedies, including word of her husband's death earlier that day. White sat and listened, saying nothing. Years of legal and counseling experience had taught him that many times all one wanted was someone to use as a sounding board. The last thing they needed was advice. Susan fit that description. "You haven't told anyone onboard about the accident, have you?" "No. I want to get through the next few days with as little distraction as possible. Having people telling me how they feel about my situation, and having them try to give comfort, will only exacerbate the situation. When we're finished here, I'll let go." "Command is a lonely position. I don't think I really understood that until I came aboard the Ares and watched you. This discussion puts a real face on it. Your job… I wouldn't want for twice my annual salary. Unlike the President, you actually have to make the final life and death decisions, and… if you're wrong, you can't blame it on bad advice from your subordinates." Susan responded, "On the other hand, does the President ever actually have the last word on really important decisions? She has the legislature and public opinion, with all that entails, to deal with. And… the pay absolutely bites." At this point, White began to discuss particulars of his planned defense. It would be spearheaded by an attack on the Arkland boy's actions onboard Ares, and his lack of adequate performance while serving in his capacity as an aide to the board of inquiry. He also outlined an attack on the boy's parents and how their prior actions had led him to believe that normal standards of conduct were inapplicable to him. The cover-ups and payoffs would be devastating to the public image of the Arklands. He noted that some of them might even be in violation of the law. Susan and White had been conversing for about twenty-five minutes when there came a knock at her door. "Come in Captain Owens," said Susan. Owens entered, and asked, "How did you know it was me, General?" Susan just tapped the side of her head in response. "I knew you could block, Sir, but I didn't realize you could scan." "I can't, Pat. Sometimes I can get a feel for what someone is thinking, but it's nothing like a scan. I detected your curiosity that Mister White had not been chased out of my stateroom." "I've been told that General Sanchez is going to hold a briefing for the politicians and news people at 1800 hours. Are you going to attend?" "Why? I already know what we did today, seeing as how I did it. What would be the point?" "They plan to have a Q&A session immediately following the briefing." "Even more reason for me to stay away. By the way, weren't you supposed to relieve me of command earlier this afternoon?" "Yes. It seems to have been sidetracked." Susan stood up and came around her desk. "We can do it now. This time it's for keeps." "I don't know. They wanted a ceremony." "Computer record the following as an official record of change of command of EAS Ares. Transfer all command functions to Captain Patrick Owens, Earthforce, effective immediately. Captain Owens, I relinquish command of EAS Ares, effective immediately." Somewhat pensive, Owens said, "I assume command of EAS Ares, effective immediately." Susan finished with, "I stand relieved of command of EAS Ares. She's all yours, Captain Owens. I will vacate this office and stateroom immediately." "That can wait until we return to Earth, and you depart the ship." "Then as commanding officer of this ship, don't you think you should attend the briefing?" Without further conversation, Owens started to leave the room. "Captain Owens," Susan called, "would you please return this data pad on the couch to General Leftcourt. He forgot and left it here earlier." Owens then departed the room. "That was quick and simple," noted White. "It served its purpose, Mister White. It wasn't much, but it was a legal change of command, and that's all that counts." Susan activated her link with CIC. "Find the captain of the EAS Sinclair. If he is ambulatory, I want to see him in the captain's stateroom. Also, I have transferred command of the Ares to Captain Owens. Contact him for anything concerning the ship that doesn't concern today's combat activities or the medical efforts now in progress." ************************************** 1800 in the main gymnasium onboard EAS Ares: General Sanchez stood at a podium that had been hastily set up at one end of the gym. A large display screen was situated overhead. "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you will give me your attention for a minute." Slowly the sound of conversation died out. Senator Mathers Looked at General Sanchez and said, "You seem more congenial than the Ivanova woman." "I wouldn't make any hasty assumptions, Senator. This briefing is meant to explain things you have witnessed today in context. During the briefing, things that are considered highly classified will be highlighted. These things are not approved for discussion or reporting in the press. To do so will constitute treason. Please believe me when I tell you that I say that in all seriousness. We have assembled the information for our sense of perspective as much as for yours. Please roll the video." What followed was a replay of much of the pertinent video that they had all seen earlier in the day. What was present at this time were explanations of just what they had seen, with certain data highlighted as classified. The crowd of people sat quietly watching and listening. Forty-five minutes later when the lights were raised again, General Sanchez again stood behind the podium. "I will now take questions from you, one at a time. Please restrain the questioning to what was covered in the briefing. The President will not be answering any personal or political questions, so address your questions to me." Senator Mathers and others found out quickly that Sanchez was every bit as contentious as Ivanova was when it concerned classified information. As the briefing broke up, Owens stepped up to Leftcourt, handed him a data pad and said, "General Leftcourt. I have relieved General Ivanova as commanding officer of the Ares. General Ivanova said you left this on her couch, and asked me to return it." Leftcourt looked at him for a moment, took the data pad, then thoughtfully replied, "Thank you, Captain Owens. Where is Susan at the moment?" "She's in her - or rather - my office finishing up reports on today's activities, writing special evaluations, making recommendations for special awards and recognition for performances of duty above and beyond the call of duty. From what I gathered she'll be working all night trying to get a handle on it. She doesn't even have all the data yet. Personally, I think she's burying herself in her duties, but I haven't a clue as to why. I've seen her do it before, General." "Congratulations on your first command, Captain Owens. I only wish it were under different circumstances," said General Sanchez, offering his hand. Owens shook it and replied, "Thank you, General Sanchez." President Luchenko approached Leftcourt and said, "I thought Ivanova would be here." "She's busy with other duties. She handed command over to Captain Owens a short while ago." "I suppose that means I won't be seeing her again before I depart?" "There's no reason for her to see you, Madam President. If I remember correctly, she handed us her resignation this morning. She even gave you her insignia and jacket. Since she handed over command to Captain Owens, that makes her a civilian now. I thought you would be elated. Is there a problem?" Then handing the data pad to Charles Luchenko, he continued, "I believe this is yours. It would appear that she never even looked at it." Charles took the data pad and replied, "Somehow, I'm not surprised." "What have you two been up to?" Asked President Luchenko. "General Leftcourt left the data pad on the couch in the captain's office. He wanted to get her response to the information. For whatever reason, she didn't even bother to look at it," answered her husband. "I'm not at all surprised," replied his wife. The men looked at her with confused expressions. "Why not?" asked Leftcourt. "As you so succinctly pointed out, she is maybe the best tactician in earthforce. She obviously saw through your ploy," laughed President Luchenko. Leftcourt made a face, and replied, "Touche." "It's time we got people loaded and on their way back to Earth, General Leftcourt. Also, I would like to see Ivanova before I board the shuttle," said President Luchenko. The men looked at her in amazement, as if they were having trouble believing what they had just heard. "It's only a request, Tom." "I'll see if I can convince her." **************************************** 1900 in Ivanova's stateroom: After watching the man in front of her desk trying to hide his pain as he attempted a semblance of standing at attention, Ivanova said, "Sit down on the couch, Captain." Captain Gary Denson, arm in a cast, with his chest heavily bandaged and walking with the aid of a crutch, gladly lowered himself onto Ivanova's couch. "What can I do for you, General Ivanova?" He asked, wincing in pain. "Tell me about what you did today, and why? You may or may not know that charges have been filed against you for willfully disobeying a lawful order, causing the deaths of almost half of your crew, the injury of most of the rest and essentially the destruction of your ship. I'm curious, to say the least, to know your train of thought during this situation." "I'm going to be court-martialed, General Ivanova. You're probably going to be involved in it. What you're asking of me is suicide." "I'd say that you've already accomplished that. I'll make the stipulation that anything you tell me can't be used in your trial by the prosecution. Will that suffice?" Looking defeated, but proud, Denson replied, "Yes Sir." Denson was still talking when Leftcourt, Sanchez and Marsh knocked on Ivanova's door and entered the room. "Are we interrupting anything important?" Asked Marsh. "Captain Denson was explaining his actions, his decisions and the logic of the situation that led him to act as he did earlier today. I think the topic is important, General Marsh. I told him that what he tells me stays with me. I won't allow it to be used in his trial." "You're the senior officer involved with the events of today, Susan. As such, it's your call," replied Leftcourt. "I'd like to know those things myself. How about you fellows?" He asked Marsh and Sanchez. They nodded assent. "Tell them what you told me, Captain Denson. They won't be involved in your trial either." Denson started at the beginning, and quickly ran through the questions put to him. It only took about ten minutes. When he had finished with his explanations, he said, "I'd do the same thing again in similar circumstances, General Ivanova. Sometimes the right decision isn't the safe one." Looking at the heavy hardware looking back at him, Denson waited to be taken down. It never came. "Susan. President Luchenko asked me to request that you attend her departure," said Leftcourt. "Requested? Has Doctor Harris had a chance to examine her?" "It's not a joke, Susan." Looking like a major storm about to break, Ivanova replied, "If it'll make you happy, I'll do it." Then looking at Denson, she said, "Captain Denson, make yourself comfortable here. I want to talk with you when I return." "Yes Sir," he replied. Susan led the others in filing out of the room. Just before he pulled the door shut, Sanchez leaned back into the room, looked at Denson and smiled. "You're home free, Captain. She likes you." Denson looked at the door, and wondered what in hell General Sanchez was talking about. ********************************* 1915 in a passageway on Ares: Susan was walking almost three meters in front of Leftcourt, Sanchez and Marsh. She was moving quickly and silently with a catlike movement. Sanchez was watching her walk and thought to himself, [What a beautiful ass. What I wouldn't give for just….] "I heard that, General Sanchez," said Susan derailing his train of thought. "My husband used to tell me the same thing every time we made love." Sanchez's mouth opened, but nothing came out. Leftcourt and Marsh exchanged puzzled glances with Sanchez and each other. "What is she talking about?" Asked Leftcourt. "You didn't say anything." Sanchez answered their questioning looks, "I was thinking about…." Susan cut him off, "He was thinking about what a nice ass I have, and what he would do if given the opportunity." "I thought telepaths had to be on a line of sight to scan someone," said Marsh. "What are you talking about, Susan. How would you know what he's thinking?" Asked Leftcourt. Without slowing down, she replied, "It should be getting painfully obvious, General Leftcourt. My {latent} telepathic ability is beginning to rear its ugly head. No, I can't read minds, yet. But…. I can hear very intense thoughts and feel intense emotions. And… yes, I can tell if you're lying to me." Leftcourt whistled. "This puts a different face on everything. President Luchenko will have a fit when she finds out." "Why? She doesn't know anything that would interest me. Besides, when we get back, I'll be getting a job with Lyta and the people she represents. With any luck, I'll be off Earth and out of EA space before the week is out." "If she will upset President Luchenko, think about the terror she will strike into the other politicians," commented Marsh. "Why doesn't the idea of me being a full blown telepath bother you guys?" "We know you, Susan," offered Sanchez. "You have proven yourself to us many times over the years." "He's correct, Susan. People usually fear telepaths because they're afraid of the advantage they perceive them having. You have had plenty of opportunity to take advantage of situations presented to you in the past. You've never done that. Why should you be any different now?" Summarized Leftcourt. "By the way, you spoke of your husband in the past tense. What don't we know?" "I was informed by General Maddy that Charley was killed in an automobile accident at ten-twenty our time this morning," responded Susan. General Sanchez looked thoughtful, then said, "That's not possible, Susan. At ten-twenty they would have still been descending to the surface. It would have been at least eleven hundred hours before they could have possibly passed through immigration/customs inspection." "Maybe there was a misunderstanding about the time, but I'm sure he wouldn't have notified me if he didn't have good information," replied Susan. "I'll check with him after we see President Luchenko off," said Leftcourt. All during this conversation they had been walking toward transport tube. **************************************** 1930 in hanger bay one aboard Ares: Susan and her escorts arrived as the senators and congressmen were boarding the shuttle. She keyed her communications system and contacted CIC. "Put me in contact with Whitestar 71." Susan was surprised to see the other flag officers there. General Ames, Fitzgerald and the others. Maybe all Luchenko wanted was to show everyone who was boss. She snickered derisively to herself at the thought. Then she noticed the Lukens woman and her son approaching. Stepping away from the rest of the flag officers she scooped up the boy and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry we didn't get to go on the tour I promised." The boy put his arms around her neck and snuggled tightly to her. "He likes you Captain," said his mother. "I'm not the captain anymore. I turned command of the ship over to Captain Owens just over an hour ago," replied Ivanova. "I'm just a plain everyday general now." Several of the generals snickered at this remark. "I don't think 'plain' or 'everyday' presents an accurate picture, General Ivanova," commented Ames. "You can say that in spades, General Ames," remarked Sanchez. "Did you enjoy your nap in my bed?" Asked Susan. Sean shook his head yes. "Now you can tell your friends you shared a captain's bed," cooed Susan. By this time the others around them were starting to laugh at the humor. That came to a quick halt as President Luchenko, her husband, her aide and her secret service escort arrived. Her body guards had kept their distance and then some while she was aboard in deference to ship's security. Later, the head of her security detail would admit it was the safest she had been during her term in office to date. "Gentlemen, line up and come to attention," ordered Leftcourt. Susan ignored Leftcourt and continued to pay attention to the youngster in her arms. Leftcourt said nothing. He understood that Susan was legally a civilian now, in spite of the fact that she was working her ass off to get all the details of the day's fiasco wrapped up. On paper she might be a civilian, but in her actions she was every bit as much a flag officer as any of the others present. He was deep in thought about how to convince her to change her mind when President Luchenko stepped in front of him. "A credit for your thoughts, Tom." "I was just wondering what I might do to keep Susan from leaving the service." Susan had walked the Lukens woman up to the stairway to the entrance of the shuttle. She was handing Sean back to his mother and could not hear the exchange between President Luchenko and General Leftcourt. Kissing the youngster one last time, Susan wistfully walked down the stairway to where Luchenko and Leftcourt were conversing. Luchenko turned and found herself face to face with the indomitable Susan Ivanova. She had expected a look of hatred, but what she saw was neutral expression. There was no fire in the eyes looking at her, only the look of someone who was weary and tired. Luchenko looked Susan in the eyes and said, "I'm sorry about your husband. It was on the newscast." Ivanova's expression never changed, but Luchenko understood that the tired and weary look reflected the knowledge of which she spoke. "So am I," responded Susan. Luchenko's aide moved to stand beside her and handed her a uniform jacket with a brigadier general's insignia on it. While still locking gazes with Ivanova, Luchenko, in a quite level voice said, "I would consider it a great personal favor if you would put this back on… on your terms." Leftcourt could hardly believe what he had just heard. Surely, he must have imagined it. He gave a sidelong glance to his fellow officers and saw their faces showing expressions of confusion, so, he hadn't imagined it. Luchenko continued, "This has been an unusual day… a very unusual day. I think that maybe we have all learned something, whether we wanted to or not." Then she handed Ivanova the jacket. Still looking weary and tired and now slightly confused, Susan put her jacket back on. "Thank you," said President Luchenko, offering Susan her hand. Susan shook hands with her and then Luchenko started up the stairway. Her husband stepped up to Ivanova and offered her his hand. "This has been a day to remember, General Ivanova… in more ways than you might think." Susan shook his hand, but said nothing. Charles smiled broadly and moved to catch up to his wife. The aide stepped up to Ivanova and said, "No offense, General, but you are one kick-butt lady." Susan smiled at him as she shook his hand. As the last of the president's entourage went up the stairway, Susan turned to walk away, only to find herself facing a cadre of flag officers. She just looked at them, waiting for one of them to say something. "How did you do that?" Asked Leftcourt. "How did I do what?" Asked Susan in return. "President Luchenko as much as apologized to you, and what's with you doing her a favor… on your terms. Honestly, Susan, the two of you confuse the hell out of me." "Good." "What kind of answer is that?" Inquired Sanchez. "It's a Kosh answer, General." "Your telepath friend said I wouldn't have liked him for that very reason." "She's probably correct." "What made you agree to do her the favor, Susan?" Asked General Ames. "She was sincere about it. It was a from-the-heart request," answered Ivanova. "How could you know that?" Asked Fitzgerald. Susan tapped the side of her head in response. "She's a telepath, gentlemen," responded Marsh. "Albeit a reluctant one." This statement caused all of the officers to look at Susan again. It made her feel like a specimen under a microscope. She returned their stares, saying, "It's not as if I have any choice in the matter." They continued to stare in silence for about a minute before Leftcourt asked, "Do any of you have a problem with this?" All of them answered negative, but General Ames added, "Tom, I know some people who are going to have a crap hemorrhage when the hear about this." "We just won't advertise it. However, when they do learn of it, they'll just have to learn to live with it," replied Leftcourt. "If you guys are through staring, I have a lot of work to do." As she finished talking, her contemporaries moved aside to let her pass. "HEY! BOBBY! DON'T FORGET THE LUGGAGE FROM THIS MORNING!" Yelled a corporal from the side of the hanger bay closest to the shuttle. Susan and the other officers turned to see what the shouting was all about. Susan walked over to the corporal and asked, "Who's luggage is that, Corporal?" The young man turned to see who had addressed him and snapped to attention, "Sir, it is luggage belonging to the JAG personnel. There wasn't enough room for all of it on their shuttle. We were going to send it down on the next shuttle, but the ship got underway before we could do that, Sir!" "Are there any bags in there belonging to Charles Wayne?" "No Sir, General. We checked all the tags. They all belong to the JAG personnel, Sir." "Thank you, Corporal." Susan turned and walked away from the young man. She smiled to herself, as it occurred to her that he probably wasn't accustomed to having a general walk up to him and ask questions like she had just done. "Tell me, when do the surprises about her stop jumping up and smacking me in the chops?" Asked Fitzgerald. "With her, there is no way to tell," answered Sanchez. "Now, gents, I think it's time we got back to preparing for this board of inquiry." "What do you think she has in mind for Captain Denson?" Asked Marsh. "I think she's going to tell him he has been a bad boy and offer him a new assignment. He disobeyed Cashdollar's orders and put himself, his ship and his crew in danger trying to buy the lives of more than a million people," noted Sanchez. " She demands the best her people have to offer and gets it. I think in his place, she would have done the same thing. What would you guys have done in those circumstances?" He asked. They hemmed and hawed for a minute, but no one gave any definitive answer. "That's what I thought," commented Leftcourt. "All of you have doubts, because if you survive the decision, your career is probably going to be destroyed by {Monday-morning quarterbacks}. People like Susan and Captain Denson don't worry about those things. They do what they believe is the right thing, and the devil be damned. My guess is that since Captain Owens is retiring in about fourteen months, about the time we expect the Ares to be ready for post-availability shakedown, she'll offer Captain Denson command of the Ares." "When did she get that much clout? I mean, since when does a brigadier general hand out starship commands?" Asked Fitzgerald. "You should have paid more attention to what passed between Susan and President Luchenko. For whatever it's worth, Luchenko is now an Ivanova supporter. Besides, by the time the Ares is ready to get underway on her next deployment, Ivanova will have her second star, and maybe even a nomination for the third. People in high places have big plans for her, her being a telepath not withstanding," commented Sanchez, Looking at Leftcourt as he made the last part of his statement. "She's very special, gentlemen," noted Leftcourt, turning to walk away from the group. "And, as Manuel said, you have an investigation to accomplish." *********************************** 2000 hours in Ivanova's stateroom: As Susan sat down behind her desk she looked over at Denson. The pain he was enduring was evident in his facial expression. "I won't keep you long, Captain. Your punishment is my responsibility. Cashdollar wants you court-martialed. However, that's not his decision to make. You blatantly disobeyed orders, and you have explained you logic and reasoning for this incident. It has cost you your ship and about half of your crew. I won't deny that in your place, I would have made the same decision you did, but that's not what is at issue here. Earthforce cannot afford to have senior officers go off half-cocked just because they don't agree with their superior officer's method of accomplishing a task. Think about it, how would you react, with your XO, if he disagreed with you and didn't follow your orders. Just think about that for a minute, and I think you will agree that you have to be disciplined." Looking her straight in the face, Denson said, "I agree with the requirement for me to be punished. I never had any doubts about that, General Ivanova. I expressed as much to my XO when I gave the orders that resulted in my ship being so heavily damaged. Whatever you decide, I take full responsibility for my actions earlier today. They weren't legal, but as I told the other senior officers, if I was faced with the same or similar set of circumstances again, I would make the same decision again. I will do so in the future. There are responsibilities that you can't, in good conscience, ignore, regardless of the consequences." It was obvious that just breathing was causing Denson great pain, but he would not shrink from her or the pain. "I've been there and seen what can happen for expediency, Captain Denson. When Captain John Sheridan went to war with Clark's government, he faced the same situation then, that you did today. In our case if we lost or were captured our lives were forfeit. Captain Sheridan's decision cost him his career, for expediency." "If you want my career, it's yours, General. I did what I had to do. I didn't see any other choice. We were being destroyed anyway." "I know, and you are fortunate, Captain Denson. I don't have to be expedient. What I do with you is my business, and my decisions will be final." Denson looked her in the eyes and didn't flinch. He was prepared for his career to end in the next few minutes. He had known it would come to this when he had disobeyed Cashdollar's orders, no matter how bad they were. He had danced the dance, now it was time to pay the piper. "What do you think I should do with you, Captain?" Denson had expected anything, but this. "I don't know, Sir." "Come now, Captain. Surely you've held mast on some of your people. I've held mast on at least one of mine, and I have the best crew in the fleet. Think about the masts you've held. I know there must be one or two that involved someone not following orders from a superior." "I have had to do that, but it's not always cut and dried, General. I've had more that one case where I dismissed the charges because even though the disobeyed order was a legal order, it was a badly thought out order that would have caused other problems. You have to take each case on its own merits." "I agree, Captain Denson. You are dismissed. However, I will want to see you again before I depart the ship." As he got up and tried to stand at attention, he asked, "What about my punishment?" "It's already been taken care of, Captain. You better see the doctor about getting some more pain-killers." Denson had been gone less than five minutes when Leftcourt knocked and entered the room. "I see you finished with Captain Denson. What did you do to him for punishment?" "Nothing. What he did was nothing more than what Captain Sheridan and I did when we led the rebellion. He made the same decision I would have made in his place. His ship would have been destroyed if he had followed Cashdollar's orders. He simply chose to make his and his crew's deaths meaningful. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions, General. Captain Denson is one of those who understands that. He put his duty to the constitution and his people - human colonists on Mars in this case - above his personal considerations. I can't fault that. As for punishment, the responsibility for the lives lost on his ship today will be with him for the rest of his life. As a former starship captain, surely you understand that." Leftcourt sat on the couch and studied Ivanova for a minute. "You disapprove of my actions?" Queried Ivanova. "Would you care?" "No." "I didn't think so. You have a moral compass that not many have, including me. Somehow, I think you've found another one." "So do I." "For what it's worth, I would've made the same decision that he did. He'll make a good skipper for the Ares when she comes out of the yards." "I'm glad you agree." "The others are wondering how you got so much clout." "What makes them think I have any clout?" "Your relationship with Luchenko and me for starters." "They are badly mistaken. I have even fewer stars than they have. They have their wires crossed." "It shook them up a bit that you're a real telepath." "Is that as opposed to an artificial one?" "Why did you say that President Luchenko was sincere in her request?" "From everything I could gather, the woman hates me, or at least she did. There was something in her demeanor that was different down there in the hanger bay. I felt something from her, but I'm not sure what it was. She doesn't know that I'm a real telepath. Therefore, I assume she made no efforts to hide her true thoughts. Apparently those thoughts were strong enough to bleed through my mental shields. I don't know why she changed her opinion of me, and I really don't care. Maybe having to deal with Denson and Cashdollar, her and the other politicians and news people on this excursion has caused me to see some things in a different light." "It sounds to me like you have had an awakening of sorts. I'd say it was for the better. You seem to have lost some of your hard edge. Commanding two starships, and the experiences you've had during that time, has matured you considerably. A couple of years ago you were this ramrod captain, stiff as a piece of raw steel. Today you're more like a well tempered sword or a well seasoned piece of oak. You'll get even better when you get into your next assignment." "I still have difficulty visualizing myself running a {pork-chop} operation. Would you care for a salad, some soup and a sandwich, General?" Leftcourt's stomach reminded him that he hadn't had anything since the delayed lunch. "If you insist. Susan, I want to use your communications unit to call earthforce headquarters." "Be my guest, General." She signaled her steward and ordered up some supper. Mary was ahead of her and already had the food ready to serve. By the time Mary had set the table, leftcourt had a circuit establishe with Earthforce Headquarters. Looking out of the display screen at him, with a puzzled expression on his face, was a young lieutenant colonel. "What can I do for you General Leftcourt?" Asked the young man. "General Maddy called general Ivanova today and informed her of her husband's death. I'm trying to determine his information source." "Sir, General Maddy and his chief of staff left about an hour ago. He left us a long list of items we need to expedite ASAP in support of your efforts at Mars. He left us a number at which he can be reached, but he also said that we should not intrude on him and the COS unless God himself called." "Well, the last time I checked, I hadn't been deified, so I suppose you shouldn't interrupt him. Is there anyone else there who might be able to shed any light on the situation?" "One moment, Sir." The colonel made movements to call someone else. A few seconds later he looked back at his video pick-up and said, "general Leftcourt, I'm going to transfer you to Captain Dan Adams. He was there when the general got the call this morning and when he made the call to General Ivanova." A few seconds later another face came on the display screed. This one looked much younger that the colonel had. "What can I do for you, General Leftcourt?" "Do you know how General Maddy got the news of General Ivanova's husband's death?" "Yes Sir. He received a call from the State Department. I understand they had a call from the Glenthorian Ambassador, or at least from their embassy. It seems that the fellow in question was one of their diplomats. However, he apparently was on a leave of absence since he and General Ivanova were married. The latest on the accident is that the fire was so hot that most of the bodies were almost totally destroyed." "I haven't seen the newscasts, Captain. Please fill me in?" "According to the reports, General, there was a multi-vehicle pileup in the Osprey Tunnel. There were two trucks, one carrying a load of petroleum products, and a small truck tank truck loaded with liquid oxygen. They are still trying to sort out what happened. It was so hot in there that the concrete walls and road surface are melted. The overhead tiles are supposed to be fireproof, but apparently that doesn't include a fire with pure oxygen present. The vehicles are melted together in a puddle. I hear that the tunnel will have to be completely ripped out to the very outer walls and rebuilt." "How in God's name could they possibly identify anybody in that mess?" "The firefighters found one of those attaché cases that many of the ambassadors and their aides use for secure document transportation. You must have seen them. They are the cute little things with the five-thousand credit price tag attached, and that is after any discounts for quantity purchases." Leftcourt looked at Ivanova. She had tears running down her cheeks. Through those tears she said, "Lyta gave it to him as a wedding present. It's supposed to be virtually indestructible. He was using it to carry copies of our birth records and our marriage license. He might even have had some papers concerning any work he expected to do for the embassy here. He was being transferred to the embassy on Earth so we could be together." "That explains how they could be so sure it was him. Under the circumstance of the fire, they may never be able to identify all those killed, not even with DNA sequencing, assuming there's anything left to sequence. It also explains how President Luchenko knew. One of the the State Department people probably called her chief of staff. She was in contact with Earthdome for quite a while this afternoon." "I'm sorry, General Leftcourt," said the captain. "Thank you for the information, Captain. I'm sorry too." Leftcourt broke the circuit and returned to the table. Susan's crying became more intense. She rushed from the table into her bedroom and slammed the door. Mary drew herself a cup of coffee and sat down in Susan's chair, looking at Leftcourt. "You knew this was coming, General. She has been put under a lot of stress today. I hope you don't think less of her for the emotional outburst." "Mary, most of the men I know, myself included, would have broken down when we first heard of our spouse being killed, especially after we just finished losing several thousand comrades like we did this morning. She has held up very well. I remember how much it hurt when I lost Linda, my wife of almost forty years, and I didn't have the added stress of today to deal with." "You better eat before it gets cold, General. I'll see to it that she eats as soon as she comes back out here." "She has a winner in you, Mary." "Is there any good reason why I can't transfer with General Ivanova. She is going to need someone she trusts to help her with her child." "If she wants you to go with her, it will happen. You have my personal guarantee." General Leftcourt finished the meal and left. He could hear Susan still crying through the closed door, and wished there was something he could do to help abate her pain. ************************************** 2000 hours aboard the presidential shuttle: Luchenko's husband had asked George White to sit with them on the way back to Earth. They were approaching Whitestar 71 when President Luchenko, watching the screen at the front of the shuttle, which was displaying their approach to the whitestar, noticed that they were not heading toward the starship's landing bay. "Charles, do you have any idea why we aren't docking with the whitestar ship?" Her husband pushed a call button that rang in the pilot's compartment and addressed the question to him. The response was that the shuttle was much too large for the whitestar's hanger bay. "The pilot says our shuttle is too large to fit into their hanger bay," responded her husband. "Then how do they propose to get us back to Earth?" As she asked the question she felt a jolt that ran throughout the shuttle. "What was that?" She asked. "I believe that was the whitestar's tractor beams just latching on to us," answered Charles. The view on the shuttle's passenger view screen shifted rapidly as the whitestar with the shuttle safely tractored in very close, picked up speed. The other two whitestar's flanked Whitestar 71 as all three of them entered the jump point that Whitestar 71 had opened. "I suppose that answers that question," commented White. "Mister White, how can Ivanova afford to retain your firm?" Asked President Luchenko. "We have been retained by a unidentified group that said it represented some friends of Ivanova. Someone established an account to pay for our services, so here I am. Anything more than that is confidential. Before you ask, everything is above board. Even the good General Wayne has no idea who they might be. However, I will tell you that we don't think she is the real target of the lawsuit." "Oh? Then what do you think is the object of the suit?" Asked Charles. "General Wayne agrees with me that it is probably someone who wants to make use of the trial publicity to attack your wife and the military. We have some very good investigators looking into it." "Isn't that expensive?" "It's very expensive Mister Luchenko, but then whoever is financing General Wayne's defense has some unbelievably deep pockets. The lawsuit is for a hundred million credits. With that as a starting point, and knowing that Mrs. Wayne couldn't amass that much money in several lifetimes, just what point is there to the suit, except as a launch platform for something else?" "I see your point," commented President Luchenko. ******************************* END PART 12 From: "Aubrey W. Adkins" Subject: Ivanova Part 13a of ___(WIP) Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 15:51:37 -0400 Ivanova Part 13a of ___(WIP) Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@home.com] Think of this as a space opera. All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners, PTEN, WB, JMS, and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are public domain. Rated PG_10 (Vocabulary) "..." = spoken words <...> = telepathic speech [...] = one's own thoughts, internal (...) = to set off items such as acronyms immediately identified by the phrase they stand for. '...' = to set off odd items??? {...} = italics *********************************************************************** 0420 Onboard the Minbari war cruiser Valen's Path: "We are about to enter the space near Mars, Sir," said the shai alyt's second in command. "Ensure that our gun ports are closed and the weapons are powered down. The humans have just had heavy combat with a small Drakh force and suffered a great many casualties. They will be very nervous, and quick to shoot first and ask questions later," reminded the shai alyt. "It is as you order." A few minutes later they Valen's Path opened a jump point. The captain was not surprised when he was told, "Shai Alyt, someone has locked weapons on us." "You seem surprised," replied the shai alyt. As the war cruiser exited the jump point, the shai alyt noted, "They have their weapons systems powered-up and ready to engage us." A few seconds later, the weapons lock was terminated and the captain observed that the Ares weapons systems were placed in standby. "It is as you said. They are nervous." "I prefer to think they are vigilant. I would be in this situation. We could be a Drakh force. It isn't inconceivable. You note that as soon as we could be identified, they dropped their lock and placed their weapons in standby. That ship has a well trained crew, considering that they are humans," commented the shai alyt. ****************************** 0430 hours in CIC onboard EAS Ares: "Lieutenant Ellis, someone is opening a jump point at one thousand kilometers off our port bow," said the duty SWC, Ensign Hall. Lieutenant Ellis was in the process of calling Captain Owens, When Ensign Hall spoke again. "Forward weapons arrays are powered up, I have weapons lock and am bringing the ship about." Less than a minute later, Ensign Hall identified the ship as a Minbari war cruiser, dropped the weapons lock and placed the main batteries back into standby. "Lieutenant, it is the Minbari war cruiser we are expecting." Lieutenant Ellis was by this time talking to Captain Owens on the intercom. He was instructed to contact the Minbari warship and arrange for Doctor Harris to communicate with them. "Mister Ellis we have an incoming call from the war cruiser," noted the communications watch.. With that said, the watch put the call on the main view screen. ********************************* 0500 hours in Ivanova's stateroom: Susan had been working since 0500 the previous morning. When her ever present wake-up call sounded at 0500 she was jarred back to consciousness, sweat running off her face and feeling very sticky all over. She checked her data pad and realized she must have lost her fight with sleep at or just after 0300. The nightmare she had experienced prevented the sleep from relieving her fatigue and caused her to sweat profusely from the stress it induced. Still very groggy from her fatigue, she started a shower and spent the next thirty minutes under the hot running water, fighting her emotions and the tears that came as the events of her nightmare were vividly recalled. Her nightmare had her beside her husband as he reclaimed his bags at the terminal and proceeded to call a taxi. She was sitting beside him in the car all the while trying to communicate with him to get him to have the car stopped, but he couldn't hear her. Up ahead she saw the entrance to the tunnel and was screaming to Charles that he had to stop. She was still screaming at him when the car entered the tunnel at a speed just below the legal limit. Susan saw the accident start to occur and tried to shake Charles, but she couldn't touch him. The fire started with a bright flash and engulfed the taxi and several more cars and a truck in less than an instant. She watched in horror and screamed even louder as Charles burned before her eyes. It had been at that moment that her wake-up alarm had sounded. Susan was dressed in her bathrobe and recording messages for those killed in yesterday's action. She was so engrossed in her activity that she was startled when Mary said, "General, it's time you ate breakfast." Susan consulted her watch and was surprised to see that it was already 0645 hours. She looked up at Mary and realized that she had better eat. The look in her friend's eyes was not a pleasing one. She moved over to her dining table and started to dig into the eggs on the plate. She had eaten all of two forks full of food when her communications panel beeped. "Accept," she said through the mouthful of chewed food. "Good morning, General," said the cheery face of Captain Patrick Owens. "I hope I didn't catch you at an inopportune time." "I'm eating breakfast, Pat. You talk, and I'll eat." "Colonel Munoz has reported that they have finished examining all the spaces on the Drakh dreadnought. The entire crew is dead and his marines are moving the bodies to a staging area near the point where they cut through the hull. He assumes you want the bodies disposed of before the 'spooks' take over. He sent the telepath back late last night. He says the kid was kind of spooked by what he saw in the Drakh minds. I'll send him to see you whenever is convenient for you." "Send him to see me about 0800. Anything else?" "Your friend Delenn sent us a bunch of Minbari doctors to help with the injured rangers. We've lost a couple of them. The Minbari doctors said there would not have been anything they could have done for them either. They seem impressed with our medical staff's efforts. The captain of the war cruiser that transported them has issued an invitation to you for lunch aboard his ship today. It seems he is impressed with your tactics, amongst other things. Last but not least, the captains of the other warlock destroyers are being brought over this morning for interviews. Captain Cashdollar is being brought over to be interviewed and left to you for punishment for his disobedience of your orders yesterday. It seems that you gave up one job, just to be buried by another one." "Like the song says, Pat, It never rains, but it pours. I'll be ready. Also, tell that Minbari shai alyt that I accept his invitation." ******************************************** 0700 in the Ares' flag mess: "That's about it General Leftcourt . The various captain's including Cashdollar should all be aboard before 0830. I assume that Susan will get first crack at him," said Sanchez. "She is his immediate superior officer and he disobeyed her orders. I want to see how she handles him. Especially after her handling of Captain Denson." "The only thing Denson and Cashdollar have in common is that they are both captain's in earthforce," noted Marsh. "I know that, but I an curious to see her logic differs in the situations," noted Leftcourt. "I thought you had ordered breakfast, Tom?" queried Sanchez. "I did about fifteen minutes ago. Your stomach has too much influence on you, Manuel." "He has always had a thing for food. It must be a DNA thing," commented Marsh. "When do you plan to Leave, Tom?" asked Sanchez. "As soon as Susan can arrange transportation back to Earth for us. I've been away from my office for too damn long as it is. If I don't get back soon, my chief-of-staff will probably have displaced me." "Maybe she can fast talk the captain of that war cruiser hanging off our port bow into taking you two back. Hell, it wouldn't take them an hour," said Sanchez. "I think they're too busy supporting their doctors and ours. Besides with that thing here with the Ares, I seriously doubt the Drakh would try another attack. At least not without a hell of a lot more firepower than the last group had," observed Leftcourt. "I forgot about the group of doctors they sent over here. I understand they are helping with the worst of the human casualties in addition to the wounded rangers. I guess it helps to have influential friends in high places. Lord knows, President Luchenko could never have managed to get this much help," commented Sanchez. "How do you think that kind of influence would play for someone who was president?" Asked Leftcourt. "The companies who do a lot of off-world trading would love it," replied Marsh. They heard the pantry door open and close. A moment later the odor of eggs, bacon and several other breakfast items assailed their olfactory nerves. "I believe breakfast has arrived, gentlemen," noted Marsh. *********************************** 0800 hours in Ivanova's stateroom: Susan said, "Enter." As she heard the knock on her door. A young man entered the room and stood in front of her desk. "Rodger Norton reporting as ordered, General." "Have you eaten this morning, Mister Norton?" "Yes Ma'am. I ate in the wardroom at about 0630. The food is rather good." "I understand you managed to gather some information from the Drakh, but that the process gave you some trouble." "I'm not sure trouble is the correct term. It left me feeling uneasy. Their thought patterns aren't quite like anything I've encountered before. I'm a commercial teep, rating P-5. We were taught how to handle alien thoughts in the course of our normal jobs. We never received any training in forcible scanning. I think they reserved that for the psi-cops." "What did you get?" "It might be easier to show you, General. I know you can't be scanned, but this wouldn't be anything like that." "We'll give it a try. It can't hurt anything." Norton reached across Susan's desk. "If you will hold my hand Ma'am, it might make it easier." Susan took Norton's hand and commented, "This better not be a new pick-up technique." Norton couldn't help a little laugh, which was exactly what Susan wanted. If he were at ease this should be easier. For twenty minutes Susan's mind was busy trying to understand the images Norton was sending her. She had experienced telepathic mind linking with Lyta, but this was or at least the images were as alien as anything she had ever experienced. "I'm sorry, General, but that was what I got from their minds. My best guess is that they were dying, satisfied that humanity would be snuffed out. As to when, where and how, I don't have a clue," said Norton. "It's all right, Mister Norton. I can't make heads or tails of the images either. I just wish Lyta were here. She would probably know exactly what it all means." "If there is nothing more I can do, General. I need some down time. These images give me the 'willies'." "Thank you for your efforts, Mister Norton. You may go." Norton had hardly left when Susan's door was again assaulted by someone's knuckles. "Enter," responded Susan. The door opened and an earthforce captain entered. A glance told her it was Captain Cashdollar. "I was ordered to report to you, General. It concerns what transpired yesterday." "It most certainly does, Captain. I have to decide how to handle the incident. There are some things I need to ask you. None of what you say here will be used in any actions that may be taken by a board of inquiry. I want answers for my own information. You may refuse to answer any of my questions if you so wish. Essentially, what does or does not happen to you is completely up to you. You will be offered alternatives. It will be up to you to make choices." "Let's cut to the chase, General. My ass is grass and you are driving the lawnmower. What else is there to know?" "I for one would like to know why you were dispersed as you were when Ares arrived on the scene? I haven't seen the recordings from the whiterstars yet. I know they have complete records of all the intership communications, but I'll watch and listen to them later. You have the floor. Enlighten me." Cashdollar stood silently arranging his thoughts. He was silent for so long that Susan finally asked, "Okay. Let's start with something easy. Have you ever read the Standards of Engagements Manual, particularly the section that addresses situations to be expected when encountering Drakh forces?" After nearly two minutes of silence, Susan stated, "I'll take your silence as a no. Do you know who wrote that section of the manual?" When Cashdollar still remained silent, Susan asked, "Tell me, Captain, do you know anything? If not, I have better things to do than waste my time watching you do a poor imitation of a cigar store Indian." Finally, Cashdollar broke his silence. "It doesn't matter if I answer or not, General. You have already made up your mind." "Since that is the way you want it, Captain, that's the way you'll have it. I was prepared to offer you the opportunity to request immediate retirement at your current rank, and that would be the end of it, no board of inquiry, no nothing, even though I think you screwed up very badly because you don't like me, and you never read the manual dealing with the Drakh, because of that dislike. As long as it didn't hurt anyone else, it was your business. However, yesterday, it may have cost a great many lives. You could have walked in spite of that. All you had to do was be honest with me. Since you chose not to take that path, I am remanding you into the custody of Captain Owens until your board of inquiry is completed, and I am going to convene a general court-martial for you for failure to obey my lawful orders in a combat situation. I should have you shot, but there has been enough killing over the last twenty-four hours. You are dismissed. Report to Captain Owens. He will see to accommodations for you." As he turned to go, he asked, "What about my charges against Captain Denson?" "As your superior officer, and having court-martial jurisdiction over this area of operation, I held office hours on the good captain. What his punishment is does not concern you." As Cashdollar closed the door behind himself, Susan thought, [Stupid bastard. You hate me so much you just threw your retirement out the window.] Susan didn't have to wait long for the other captains to make their appearance. She had them come in as a group. Her first action was to personally apologize to Captain Harper for almost destroying her ship and killing a number of her crew. She showed them the recording showing what she and her CIC crew saw as they exited hyperspace and commenced their final attack on the Drakh dreadnought. Captain Harper commented after watching the recording, "You couldn't even see us until the damage had already been done. It was an accident, General Ivanova. Just a damned deadly, but honest accident. I also appreciate that you took the time to record personal messages for those of my crew that were lost in this accident." "It took a long time, Captain Harper, but I feel I owe that much to their families and next of kin," replied Susan. "What else do you can we do for you General Ivanova?" Asked Captain Harper. "General Marsh wants all of you to make depositions, for his investigators to use as guides in their search for evidence to be used by the board of inquiry that is being convened to examine yesterday's events. All I ask is that you be honest and forthright. Keep in mind that the destruction of the three omegas isn't part of the inquiry. We feel that even if Ares had been here and at general quarters, the Drakh would still have destroyed those ships. So they are a non-issue. If you haven't had breakfast, yet, I'll have something rustled up for you. I've finished most of what I needed to do, except for the final report on yesterday's events. I feel like taking a final walk through the ship. I turned her over to Captain Owens yesterday evening." She then rang her service bell and instructed Mary to take care of her guests and made a call to Leftcourt to inform him that the captains he wanted to interview were in her stateroom. Leftcourt asked her to make arrangements to get him and her back to Earth. ******************************** Susan was finishing up her walk with a visit to hanger bays one and two. It had been some time since she had seen this many wounded bodies in one place. Even the attack on the Zeus hadn't resulted in a third of the number of casualties she was seeing here. She was pleased to see Minbari and human doctors working over wounded personnel. It reminded her of how far they had come in the last ten years or so. As she watched the doctors she became aware of someone standing at her side. She turned her head and was greeted by the grim face of her former XO. "Hello Pat. What can I do for you?" Remaining silent for a minute, he finally replied, "General Leftcourt is wanting to leave sometime today, if that's possible. He said you'd handle the transportation arrangements." "So, now I'm the social secretary. I'll see what I can do. Have you told him that I have a lunch date with the captain of the war cruiser?" "No. I'm leaving that to you. Are afraid he might be jealous?" Susan smiled and replied, "That's not my problem. What is my problem is assembling the final report on this fiasco. I'm afraid I'm going to need some help from you to do that. I have most of what I need, but the data concerning these casualties isn't going to be complete for several days. I'll submit the report and note that the casualty data will be submitted under separate correspondence (SEPCOR). I'm also going to need information on the Minbari doctors and their efforts. I want to submit letters of appreciation for all their efforts on behalf of the ranger and human patients. I heard we would have lost many more than we did if they hadn't arrived with better equipment and techniques." "That's not a rumor, General. It's what I learned from Captain Harris less than thirty minutes ago. She hasn't been to bed since she got up yesterday morning. She, her staff and the doctors sent up from Mars have been up to their asses in bloody bodies for the entire time since we began receiving the wounded yesterday. It is hard to believe that we have lost so few. They deserve recognition." "I intend to see that they get it, Pat. I want you to write up the preliminary recommendations using all information available, including evaluations and recommendations of Doctor Harris. I will smooth them out and add my twenty credits worth to them. I'm going to leave you copies of recommendations and evaluations that I have already written. You can review them and send them to me through headquarters." "My other reason for being here is to inform you that a shuttle from Mars is about to land, and it has visitors for you." Susan looked puzzled as she asked, "Visitors? I'm not expecting visitors." With Owens at her side, Susan walked up to the area set up to receive incoming personnel and said to the watch, "I was told that I have visitors down here, Sergeant." Their shuttle is coming in now, General. It will be a minute or so before they can debark. Captain Owens, I have notified the medical personnel that there are more blood supplies on this shuttle." "How many units of blood have we received from Mars, Sergeant?" "I'm not sure without checking the logs, Captain, but it's been a lot. They went through massive amounts while they were getting some of the injured stabilized. We would have not been able to pull that much blood if we bled everyone on the ship. Some of the rare types were extremely critical. Rumor has it that they made a massive effort on Mars to get enough of some of the rare types and we still lost a couple because of shortages." Unnoticed by Susan, Owens and the sergeant, three individuals had approached the check in area. "It's not a rumor, Sergeant. We had to twist the hell out of some arms to get that blood," said an individual, who's voice Susan immediately recognized. "Garibaldi! What are you doing here?" "I just thought you should meet someone who might be useful in the future." "Pat Owens, this is Michael Garibaldi, the fellow who was going to give you a job on Mars. Michael, this is Captain Patrick Owens. He was shanghaied into serving fourteen months as the commanding officer of the Ares. He is taking her through her yard overhaul period." Garibaldi shook hands with Owens, and said, "This gentleman is my chief cook and bottle washer and this other distinguished gentleman is the present President of the Mars Colony. The younger man offered his hand to Owens. "I'm Robert Bryson, chief cook and bottle washer of Edgar Industries. Turning to face Susan, he said, "You must be the Ivanova he is always talking about. Is it true that you once issued a shoot-on-sight order for him during the civil war?" Noting that Bryson had not offered to shake hands with her, she replied, "Yes." Bryson offered her his hand, "I'm honored to meet someone who knows the real Michael Garibaldi, warts and all." Susan took the offered hand, tentatively. It was obvious she was uncomfortable. The other man shook her hand and said, "My name is Paul Waters, General. I'm the President of the Mars Colony. I've been impressed with all the dealings with your people. You have a really professional outfit up here." "I like to think that my people are competent, Mister Waters." "We aren't intruding, are we Susan?" asked Garibaldi. "Not at all Michael. I think we should vacate this area, before we do. If you gentlemen, that term doesn't include you, Michael, will follow me I'll take you to the flag mess. We can sit there and talk out of the working stiff's way. You can also meet the CJCS since he is still here." "You really did have all the heavy hardware on board." stated Garibaldi. "Yes. I did. This may prove to be an opportune time for you President Waters. I have a lunch date with the captain of the war cruiser parked off my forward port quarter. If I can wrangle it, would you like to accompany me?" Waters looked at Bryson and Garibaldi. "I thought this was supposed to be a short visit to say hello in person, Michael?" "It is. I damn sure didn't plan anything like this, even if I could," replied Michael. "Don't get upset gentlemen. The captain of the Minbari ship will probably say no, anyway." "It's just that I'm not prepared," said Waters. "Look at it this way, Mister President. A Minbari friend of mine insists that the universe puts us where we are most needed. Maybe it was meant to be. After all, it won't be formal, and no treaties are being negotiated or anything like that, besides the only Minbari ship's captain I ever had a meal with before went gaga over my friend Lyta Alexander," commented Susan. ********************************** It the Ares' flag mess: "That's the whole story, General Leftcourt. I have this lunch date and I'm not sure what to do with it, said Susan. The communications system chirped. "Accept," said Owens. The screen logo shifted to show the image of a distinguished Minbari male of indistinguishable age. The image said, "I am Shai Alyt Prathen commanding officer of the Minbari war cruiser Valen's Path. I wish to address General Susan Ivanova." Susan moved into the video pickup's field of view. "How may I be of service, Shai Alyt Prathen?" "I issued a lunch invitation to you through Captain Owens early this morning. I have heard nothing in reply." "I have been busy ,Shai Alyt. Is this a formal or informal invitation?" "Informal of course. It intrigues me that a relatively unknown human female could bring such pressure to bear on us through Ambassador Delenn, or maybe I should say Vice-president." Prathen's words were being translated from Minbari, but the Minbari phrases could be heard in the background. Susan had studied very hard and was able to understand most of what he had said, even before it was translated. "I'm sorry for any pressure that Delenn caused to be brought to bear on you. For your information, I never requested any help from your people. However, I and my medical staff appreciate the assistance that you have provided. I am told that our losses and those of the rangers would have been considerably higher if it weren't for your assistance. For that we are in your debt." Prathen studied what he was seeing on his display. He asked, "Who are your associates?" Susan had each one step forward and identify themselves. Prathen's image became studious. "Since it is an informal lunch, maybe your associates would like to accompany you. They are welcome to do so." Susan looked at the others in the room. All nodded acceptance. "They accept your hospitality, Shai Alyt Prathen. There will be seven of us." "I will have Whitestar 71's shuttle be at your ship at 1200 hours your time, if that is acceptable." "It is, Shai Alyt," answered Susan, then the circuit was broken. "You all have been invited to lunch, gentlemen. I suggest we muster in hanger bay one at 1145 hours." "Susan, I would like to see your reports," said Leftcourt. She handed him several data crystals. "Those contain reports, recommendations, evaluations and even the material I recorded for inclusion in the messages to family members of the killed in action. I have not included a final report on the medical situation because it is still fluid. I will submit that data when it is completed." "If you all don't mind, I have an obligation to read what she wrote. Manuel, you and Arthur stay. You can review this with me," said Leftcourt. ***************************** 1230 hours aboard the Valen's Path: "Welcome aboard the Valen's Path, Gentlemen," said the Minbari that had met Susan and her companions. Shai Alyt Sheraun was with them. "Our commanding officer will be along in a few minutes. I will be acting as your interpreter while you are aboard the ship." Susan said nothing, but her erratic telepathic abilities revealed that the guide was lying about the shai alyt. This lowered her opinion of the shai alyt a full notch. He had known who his guests were and when they were arriving, and this was a snub. However, given that he was warrior caste, she hadn't really expected anything different. She looked at Sheraun and could see disappointment in his eyes. She followed their interpreter as he led them from the hanger bay. As they followed their guide down the wide passageway, they were met by Shai Alyt Prathen at a passageway cross-corridor. He spoke in Minbari and their guide translated, "My apologies for not meeting you, but something needed my attention at the last minute." Susan looked at Sheraun who was looking at her. She said nothing even though she mentally sensed that the Shai Alyt was lying, and the expression on her face even before the shai alyt's last words were translated, left no doubt in Sheraun's mind that Susan Ivanova could understand Minbari. He didn't know how extensive her knowledge of Minbari was, but he knew that she had a phenomenal memory. Shai Alyt Prathen was going to get a rude surprise before this lunch date was over. Susan and her group were given a tour of the ship, with emphasis being placed on its superiority of technology. The tour had lasted almost an hour. Finally they arrived at what was obviously a dining hall. The lunch was eaten in silence for the most part. The attitude of Shai Alyt Prathen and his crew was that of superiority. Susan and her group had suffered the indignity in good humor, even smiling sometimes. It was just after they had finished eating that Shai Alyt Prathen inquired about the denn'bok that Susan wore attached to a holster of sorts on her belt. "It was given to me by a ranger just before he died," answered Susan to the shai alyt's inquiry. "Do you know how to use it properly?" translated their guide. "I know enough to open it without doing major harm to myself," she replied. "Have you ever fought anyone with it?" Translated their guide. Susan could see where this was leading, the shai alyt's thoughts were painfully obvious, so she preempted him by asking, "Do you have anyone who could spar with me. It would help me learn to use the device better." She had been watching Shai Alyt Prathen closely, and had concluded that he could, in fact, speak Earth English, or at least he understood it. She smiled at him. Prathen could see that the smile held only contempt. He was confused. "Do you have anyone aboard that is trained in hand-to-hand combat?" Asked Susan. This statement caused Leftcourt to look at her and ask, "What are you thinking about, Susan?" "I see no reason why I shouldn't enjoy this little lunch date, General," she replied. Garibaldi and Bryson had said almost nothing for the whole time they had been aboard the ship. Garibaldi knew damned good and well that Susan was hell on wheels in a bar fight, but this would be different. "Susan, is this a good idea?" "I think it is a very good, Michael. In fact, guide, tell the shai alyt that I challenge him to a no-holds-barred match of hand-to-hand combat. He is much larger than I am and is also a male. Tell him that I don't think he can defeat a human female, that being me. You tell him, or I will." The expression on the Minbari shai alyt's face told everyone in her group that she had scored a bulls-eye. She now had no doubts, whatsoever, that he understood Earth English, perfectly. She sat waiting expectantly for his reply. "It is an unworthy challenge, therefore I decline," translated the guide. "I didn't think you warrior caste types had any balls where a fair challenge and level playing field were involved. However, I will even stipulate that he can use a denn'bok, and I will compete unarmed. Certainly, that must be enough of an advantage for him." The way Shai Alyt Prathen's expression clouded to one of anger made Susan's heart sing. She was confident that he had, in his arrogance, probably never learned any fighting styles except his beloved Minbari ones. She had learned enough in her sparring with Minbari rangers to know that Minbari fighting styles had some gaps in their effectiveness. She also knew that if he were stupid enough to accept her challenge, she would beat him half to death before they could stop her. Her hopes were dashed when he vehemently refused her challenge. She sneered and looked at Sheraun. "You people and your superiority crap make me sick. I'm ready to leave. This has been a wasted trip. Also, I withdraw my former offer of thanks for providing the medical team to help my medical staff. I had nothing to do with your being ordered by the Grey Council to transport them here then support their efforts. If you had your way, all the wounded could die, rangers and Earthers alike." Susan, then got up from her chair and said, "Take us back to the shuttle. I have better things to do that kill time around here." The generals, Garibaldi, Bryson and President Waters were left gaping speechless at Susan's verbal blast. Shai Alyt Prathen Said nothing for a moment. Then he arose, and instructed the guide to return the group to the hangar bay. On the way back to the shuttle, Susan addressed Sheraun, "Since the shai alyt is gone, let me apologize for what I said about Minbari in general back there." She said this too low for the guide to overhear. "I never took it personally, Susan. Remember, my life's love is your best friend. I think I know you well enough to know when you are baiting someone. I think you might even have been successful," replied Sheraun. Garibaldi dropped back and walked beside Susan. "What in hell are you trying to do, Susan?" "I was hoping to piss Prathen off enough to get him to fight me. It appears that he is too smart for that." "He could hurt you very badly." "I really don't think so, Michael. Besides, you don't know what I've been doing for the last five or six years. Marcus and his ranger buddies spent a great deal of time teaching me the fighting techniques used by the rangers." "Yeh, but that doesn't make you qualified to take on a trained Minbari warrior caste male, who's been doing it all his life." "That's just the point, Michael. He's been doing the same things all his life. Meanwhile, I have become very proficient in the martial arts of a more than a dozen different races. Learning how to fight is how I have been able to keep my mind off Marcus all these years, and I'm very good at it, Michael." "Her marine colonel swears by her abilities, Mister Garibaldi," added Sheraun. "You just missed Lyta, Susan. She was on Mars less than a week ago. She went to Earth with Robert for a couple of days." Garibaldi noticed Sheraun perk up at the mention of Lyta's name." "She told me in hyperspace while I was in transit back to Earth that she was headed this way. That's the last I heard from her. I had to go destroy a space station and some ships, replied Susan." "How did she do that?" Asked Sheraun. Susan tapped her head. "Remember she is an extremely powerful telepath." "As if I'm ever likely to forget. After all, she's been inside my mind several times. She knows me better than I do," responded Garibaldi. Sheraun and Susan laughed. Bryson overheard these last few statements, and offered, "Don't forget her little trick of jumping to hyperspace without the benefit of jump engines." "You have to give up the stuff you've been snorting, Bob," chided Garibaldi. This was the first he had heard of that particular little trick, but he didn't doubt that she could do it. Bob wasn't one to exaggerate things like that. "Next thing you guys will be telling me is that she can bring people back from the dead," chuckled Susan. She didn't see the look of alarm on Garibaldi's face. "Let me guess. You people will be nominating her for God next, right?" Asked Sanchez, after overhearing part of the conversation. The Minbari guide was listening to all of this and was completely baffled. He had never heard of Lyta, whoever she was, but she sounded interesting. If that was who Sheraun was pursuing, it made some sense, even if she was human. "I don't think that's an elective office, General Sanchez," replied Susan. The three generals exchanged puzzled looks with one another. All of them had met and interacted with the Alexander woman. There had been nothing about her to indicate that she was anything but a very powerful telepath, and that was only a thought for Marsh and Sanchez because of her midnight demonstration. Susan was already finishing up the medical portion of the reports in her mind, except for the numbers of the various categories of wounded and dead. She hadn't noticed that they had just entered the hangar bay. She wasn't really surprised to see Shai Alyt Prathen there with several Minbari bodyguards. She looked at him and concentrated. Then she let a little smile purse her lips. It was a very cold smile, and it wasn't missed by Shai Alyt Prathen. He had the irrational idea that this was exactly what she had wanted just after lunch. "Ah, Shai Alyt Prathen, I'm so glad you haven't disappointed me. Which one of these young men's lives are you going to sacrifice on the alter of your ego?" Asked Susan in a very taunting voice. Her associates were mortified. "Susan, you can't do this!" snapped Leftcourt. "The only way to stop me General, is to get between me and them. Take my word for it, you really don't want to go there." Leftcourt started to say more, but Sanchez whispered, "Let it be, Tom. Don't crowd her style." Susan strode across the hangar bay and stopped in front of Shai Alyt Prathen. "Which one is it to be. I'm telling you now, Shai Alyt, I intend to kill whoever you select as my opponent. If I have to fight, only one of us will live to tell about it. Do you understand?" "You wanted the fight, now you have it," replied Prathen. "I need ten minutes to warm-up, Captain. While I warm up, you should make sure that the man you chose knows that this isn't a sparring match." Susan proceeded to hurry through warmup exercises and a few minutes stretching. Prathen watched her and was impressed with her grace and flexibility. She would be fighting someone ten standard years her junior. It was an uneven match, and he wasn't prepared for her tossing her denn'bok to one of her associates, Garibaldi, if he remembered the names correctly. Susan turned to the surprised shai alyt and said, "I plan to take your man's weapon from him, and kill him with it, that is if you have no objection, Shai Alyt Prathen." Prathen nodded to one of the young men and he stepped forward, extending his fighting pike as he did. He went through a few basic moves to demonstrate what a Minbari could with it. Susan watched every move he made very closely, noting his eye movements and everything else about him as he moved. The young man warmed up with the weapon for all of five minutes. Susan's associates were choked with apprehension and outright fear for her safety after watching the demonstration. With the exercises over Susan and the young man took up stances just over two meters apart. Preathen signaled for them to start. The young man made a couple of feigns at Susan, but she easily dodged them. In a flash he made a serious swing for her head. Susan ducked and grabbed the pike. She closed her left hand over the very center of the weapon and triggered its closing mechanism. Before the young man could respond to the completely unexpected move, Susan moved her hand and triggered the weapon to extend. The end of the pike struck the young man in the head just above the center of his eyes. He was knocked senseless. Susan twirled the pike and smashed him in the left temple as hard as she could. She was sickened by the sound of breaking bone. The young man fell limply to the floor, bleeding profusely from both injuries. Susan stood over him and aimed the end of the pike toward his head and raised it to strike a killing blow. In perfect Minbari, she said, "You can apologize for your rude behavior toward me and my friends, and you can do it in Earth English. I know you can understand it, and I suspect that you also speak it. You have five standard seconds, or I will crush this man's skull. If you think I won't do it, just wait six seconds. It's your call, Shai Alyt Prathen. Time starts now." Prathen looked Susan in the eyes, and what he saw there actually chilled him. He knew she would kill his crewman to make a point. He had called her bluff, and she had a better hand. She had spoken in Minbari, so his men all knew what she had said. She was full of surprises. He had never thought about the denn'bok's opening and closing mechanism being a major flaw. She had been correct. Their arrogance had already cost him the services of his best denn'bok fighter. If he didn't apologize, it would cause his death. He looked at the other humans then back at her. It was obvious who the true leader amongst them was. In almost perfect Earth English, Shai Alyt Prathen said, "I and my crew have behaved badly toward all of you today. Our actions were not honorable and do not reflect well on us. Your General Ivanova has made me see the error in this. I hope to be able to meet with you again under different circumstances in the future." Susan closed the pike and rejoined her associates. Shai Alyt Prathen asked, "About his pike?" Susan turned at his call. Looking somewhat thoughtful, she tossed it to him. "I was going to keep it as a souvenir, but it really isn't appropriate." Then she turned and joined her associates boarding the shuttle. As the shuttle was being moved out of the immediate area, Shai Alyt Prathen turned to his crewmen and said, "Somehow, she cheated. There is no way that a human female could defeat an accomplished warrior, the way she did here. She will pay for her skullduggery." After his statement he stalked off toward the hangar bay exit. The crewmen looked at one another, but no one said anything. They had seen no evidence of deceit or cheating, and like it or not, the human female had defeated their best denn'bok fighter. ********************************* End Part 13a From: "Aubrey W. Adkins" Subject: Ivanova Part 13b of ___(WIP) Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 15:51:55 -0400 Ivanova Part 13b of ___(WIP) Criticism is welcomed. Without, it there can't be any improvement. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@home.com] Think of this as a space opera. All characters/places/persons not belonging to the writer are the sole properties of their owners, PTEN, WB, JMS, and will be turned over to the owners at the request of their agents. All other characters/places/persons are public domain. Rated PG_10 (Vocabulary) "..." = spoken words <...> = telepathic speech [...] = one's own thoughts, internal (...) = to set off items such as acronyms immediately identified by the phrase they stand for. '...' = to set off odd items??? {...} = italics *********************************************************************** In the shuttle on the return flight to Ares: "What in God's name did you think you were doing!" exclaimed Leftcourt. "I was using effective communications techniques on a hard-headed Minbari war cruiser captain. You're too in awe of the Minbari, General. They're not unbeatable. Take away their technology, and they are just another humanoid life form, nothing more. Under the conditions I used, several of our marines could have done the same thing. Besides, I'm proficient in more than a dozen alien forms of martial arts and other close combat techniques, with and without weapons. The Minbari youngster never had a chance," noted Susan. Susan stiffened in her seat and got a faraway look in her eyes. A few moments later she said, Sheraun! Get us back to the Ares ASAP! Get me CIC on the comm system! We're in grave danger!" A minute later, Susan was in the shuttle cockpit with Shevaun looking at the image of her Duty Command Duty Officer. "Lieutenant Ellis, We have a problem. You have let the Ares drift too close to the other ships in the vicinity. I want you to start using thrusters to move the Ares well away from the other ships. We have all the wounded we're going to receive already on board. Get Lieutenant Breen up to CIC on the double. I need someone with more experience running the show." "But General Ivanova, We have," started Ellis. Susan cut him off short. "Mister Ellis I gave you two orders. They are not open for discussion. Do you understand me?" "Yes Sir, General." "You better contact your ship, Sheraun. I need you to get Delenn on the horn ASAP. Can you encrypt your transmissions from the shuttle?" "Of course," he replied looking puzzled. "Why do you think we will be attacked?" "You won't, but if you're in the line of fire... as for how I know, my telepathic ability is rearing its ugly head. I can hear the shai alyt talking to his second in command. His second has doubts about his shai alyt's intentions, but being a good warrior caste member, he won't outright object." Susan returned to the passenger compartment where she was met with faces full of questions. "Please explain the danger we're in, Susan?" Requested Leftcourt. "I was reading the Minbari shai alyt's surface thoughts all during our visit. What he was saying wasn't congruent with what he was thinking. The funny thing is that I'm finding that people's thoughts are as individual as their voices, maybe even more so. I'm hearing his thoughts now. His feelings are very strong. He is livid at the humiliation he perceives that he received from the denn'bok incident. He is furious for being forced by the Grey Council to transport the doctors here. He is irrational, and his anger is raging. I hope we get back to the Ares before he starts shooting. He is going to attack the Ares. So, I'm having Lieutenant Breen called up to take over CIC until I get back. I think I can communicate with him telepathically. If so, I can bring Ares to condition one without anyone being the wiser, except those directly concerned." "You are making a mountain of assumptions, Susan. And, you're doing it with out a shred of evidence," noted Garibaldi. "I almost forgot that you don't trust telepaths. I trust my gut instincts, and what my mind knows is true, Michael. If I do this wrong, I could start an interstellar war. So, I'm having Sheraun contact Delenn. I'm going to try and convince her to contact the Grey Council. I want them to be witness to what transpires here today. Unless Shai Alyt Prathen jams all communications going in and out of the area, we should be able to pull that off. I don't think his one ship can jam everything in the area. Even Minbari transmitter technology is subject to the inverse square of the distance limitations for RF transmissions." "You keep saying "I", Susan," commented Sanchez. "That's exactly what I mean, too. I'm going to have to ask all of you gentlemen to trust me on this. I will be the sole person responsible for whatever consequences are attached to what transpires between the Ares and Valen's Path. For that reason, I am taking command of the Ares, Captain Owens, until further notice. I would suggest that you all go along with me, because you can't stop me." General Leftcourt said, "You're taking an awful lot for granted, Susan." "Yes Sir, I am. However, if what I have in mind works, we won't have to destroy their ship, and kill maybe a thousand innocent Minbari, not to mention the damage or the casualties we will suffer. I'm going to supply all of you general staff officers with plausible deniability." "You seem damned sure of your ability against a war cruiser, Susan," commented Garibaldi. "Did you see the Drakh ship that was missing its front half as you approached the Ares?" "I was meaning to ask about that. What happened to it?" "What happened was a fifteen second burst from the Ares forward main batteries at a range of just over thirty-thousand kilometers." Bryson whistled, then asked, "Where did we get weapons like that?" "We didn't," answered Sanchez. "They're a result of Susan and her crew not having enough to keep them busy on a long deployment." "Mother of God," said Garibaldi. "At the range the ships are apart now, you will vaporize him before he knows what hit him. How are you going to track him through his cloaking system?" Susan pointed at her eye and answered, "Mark-one eyeball, Michael. We have learned a bunch of new tricks. That's why I want my crack CIC crew on station. They really cook when the weapons fire gets intense." "Even with that much firepower, how do you propose to defeat him without destroying his ship?" Asked Bryson. "You'll just have to watch and learn, Mister Bryson. There is one very important thing to remember. I'll know what he's going to do, even before he issues the order." "Susan used to be one hell of a bare-knuckles bar brawler," commented Garibaldi. "I still am, Michael. It's just that I've learned a whole bunch of new tricks. Shai Alyt Prathen is going to learn about some of them before too long. That is, if he doesn't blow us away before we get back to the Ares. So far, I don't sense him planning to do that. However, he is voicing some other thoughts that would make very interesting reading, if they could be put into print. If we live long enough, I'll tell you about them later." "Susan, I have your Mister Breen on the communications system," Sheraun spoke loudly back toward the passenger compartment. "While I speak with Lieutenant Breen, I want all of you to do me a favor. Please think of a black ball. I mean concentrate on a black ball. It will make it easier to ignore your thoughts while I'm trying to hear his." As Susan seated herself in the pilots compartment, Sheraun said, I"ve put us on autopilot. I will be meditating." Susan looked at him. He said, "Some of my religious caste rangers finally taught me how to do it properly." Back in the passenger compartment, Sanchez was looking around at his fellow passengers. "We've never had anyone like her before, a telepathic general. How are we going to handle her, Tom?" "We'll have to discuss that after this is all over. Right now, I'm inclined to let her drive the bus. She has an edge that only she knows how to exploit. We may have to rethink some of our procedures. I'd damn sure hate to face her in battle because it would be a losing proposition," commented Leftcourt. "If you fellows think she would be a nasty opponent in a battle, you haven't seen anything yet. Her friend Lyta Alexander is bad in the worst way. I watched her send a pair of thunderbolt fighters back into the hanger bay of the ship that launched them at over seventy-thousand KPH. How would you like to face an opponent that could make your own people kill you?" Asked Bryson The men all considered one another. Then Marsh said, "You fellows are real pessimists. Think of the idea that they're on our side. Then it doesn't seem so depressing. After all, the last time I checked, Susan still worked for us." Susan had finished giving Breen instructions and turned to Sheraun. "You and I need to discuss strategy, Sheraun." Blinking his eyes and looking at her, he asked, "What do you have in mind?" Without missing a beat she said, "You and I are going to prevent a possible war." ***************************************** Onboard the Valen's Way: "Shai Alyt Prathen," asked his Alyt as they left the hanger bay, "What do you really think of the human female?" "It is not important, Alyt Devro. They will not exist when the day is done." "I don't understand, Shai Alyt Prathen? Why is this to be?" "She is a favored one of the Starkiller. She also commands the pride of the Earth Alliance fleet. I swore vengeance on the Starkiller after I learned the identity of the one who destroyed the Black Star. I can't kill him, so I will settle for someone who means very much to him, his protege. The pride of the Earth Alliance fleet will be a worthwhile substitute for vengeance. You may not know that my father was Alyt of the Black Star when she was destroyer by the Earther's cowardly act." Alyt Devro was stunned by the statements. Surely his Shai Alyt could see that this could start a war with the Earth Alliance. "This could lead to war with the Earth Alliance, Shai Alyt." The look of pure hatred that he received from his commander left no doubt in Devro's mind that this had been one of the considerations in Shai Alyt Prathen's decision to take the action he was presently contemplating. "When shall we start the attack?" "I want to let them get comfortable with us being in a high state of readiness with our weapons and drive systems. Then we will hit them when they are least expecting it. I think during the return of our doctors will be a good time." "Won't that put our medical personnel in danger?" "It is of no consequence. They are only Religious Caste. This will be their chance to do something really useful." Prathen's disdain for their doctors shocked Devro, but he let none of his emotions show on his face. Instead he changed the subject a bit. "Will the crew be privy to our plans?" "No. They obey orders. We will begin opening the distance between us and the Earthers. If they inquire, we tell them we don't want all the ships bunched up together. It invites attack." "You are assuming the female will not question our actions. She does not impress me as being a fool, Shai Alyt." "She is not their senior officer present, Alyt Devro. That captain will be in command of the destroyer. The other officers and she will be occupied with their inquiry into the other ships' actions during the recent attack. They will not even notice us. You give them too much credit." "It is as you say. She is not in command, therefore, we can ignore her." He said it because it was expected of him, but he personally felt that to ignore her was a very bad mistake. She had been one step ahead of Shai Alyt Prathen the whole time she was aboard his ship. He saw no reason for her to suddenly become terminally stupid. He wondered who, if anyone, had sanctioned his Shai Alyt's actions. His training would prevent him from questioning their actions until it was too late to change the results of them. ****************************** Susan and her associates had been met in hanger bay one by a contingent of ten security personnel and escorted to the flag mess. Awaiting them inside of the flag mess were the other generals. "I regret this gentlemen, but I must insist that you remain in the flag mess, while Sheraun and I try to prevent an interstellar war. You will be able to watch everything on the communications monitor system." "What you mean is that we are under house arrest!" Commented General Fitzgerald, testily. "I prefer to think of it as protective custody, General Fitzgerald." "You are going to have a great deal to answer for after this is all over, Susan," said Leftcourt. "It goes with the territory, General Leftcourt. However, the situation dictates my course of action. You gentlemen please just relax and let me and Sheraun take the heat. The instructions to my security people were that they had to get you in here without using any force. Those are their orders for keeping you here. They aren't allowed to use force, but they can flood the space with tranquilizer gas, if it becomes necessary. So, please don't try to leave. That goes double for you, Michael. You give my people reason to use the gas, and I will kick your ass when you wake up, assuming we survive the upcoming situation." Turning her back on them she continued, "Come on Sheraun. We have work to do." *************************** After the flag mess door was closed and locked, Bryson asked, "Are you gentlemen going to just sit here and do nothing?" Sanchez looked at him and asked, "Just what do you have in mind, Mister Bryson?" "Those are earthforce marines guarding the door. I can't believe they won't follow orders from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." "Shows how much you don't understand the military, Bob," said Garibaldi. "Those are her troops. They won't hurt any of us, but they will damn sure gas us to prevent our escape. Up until now she hasn't given them a patently illegal order. She said this was protective custody. She can legally hold us if she truly thinks we are in danger. She will have to answer for it later, but for now, we stay here and watch the communications panel displays." "Mister Garibaldi is correct," added Marsh. "So far she hasn't done anything illegal. Also, she has given orders that we are not to be harmed in any manner. I don't know why she is doing this, but I'm sure she has a good reason, or at least she thinks she does, and we do pay her to use her best judgment in difficult situations." "General Marsh is correct. We wait and see how this plays out. She has been correct in her actions up until now. I don't understand her reasoning, but I don't have all the facts," stated Leftcourt. "It's not as if we had any choice," groused Fitzgerald. "All of you are missing the most obvious fact of all, gentlemen," noted Owens. "Pray tell, what is that, Captain?" Asked Fitzgerald, condescendingly. "Because we are being held prisoner here, we are all absolved of any responsibility for whatever she does. Like she said, we all have plausible deniability," replied Owens. "That much is a legal fact, gentlemen," added Marsh. ********************************* In CIC on the Ares: "Gents, give me your undivided attention!" Ordered Ivanova. "General, we have the IA vice-president on the communications system," said her communications watch. The image of Delenn looked out of the display at both Ivanova and Sheraun. "What may I do for you, Susan? Hello, Shai Alyt Sheraun." Sheraun bowed his head slightly and replied, "Greetings, Entil'zah Delenn." "I'm going to transfer tactical command of the Ares to Shai Alyt Sheraun who is the senior IA officer in the area," answered Susan. In the display, John Sheridan walked up behind his wife. "What is going on, Delenn?" "John, I'm going to transfer tactical command of the Ares to Shai Alyt Sheraun." Realizing that something serious was afoot, John Sheridan replied, "Are you familiar with the parts of the IA-EA treaty that deal with that function?" "I've been playing ambassador at large for almost two years, John. I'm thoroughly familiar with the IA constitution and most of its treaties, especially those that pertain to the league of aligned worlds, and the EA is one of those entities," answered Susan. "May I ask why?" Asked John. "I'm not latent anymore, John. I picked up on the shai alyt's thoughts while we were visiting on the Valen's Path. He plans to destroy the Ares. If he does that, he won't hesitate to finish off the damaged warlocks and maybe even the damaged whitestars. I can't prove any of this, but my abilities are getting better, and damned it, John, I'm going to trust my instincts. They've saved me before, not to mention Babylon 5." "What does this have to do with transferring tactical command of the Ares to Sheraun?" After I do that, the Ares becomes part of the IA fleet. In that capacity, its crew, under the command of Shai Alyt Sheraun, can engage the Valen's Path, if that becomes necessary, and the EA is left out of the shooting match. It becomes an IA action. Hopefully, we won't get to the shooting stage. I promise, we won't fire the first shot." "Susan, may I respectfully remind you that the Valen's Path is a fully functional Sharlin class war cruiser?" Queried Sheraun. "I know," she acknowledged, "But if he shoots first, then he is responsible for whatever happens after that. We can survive his weapons fire long enough to respond. However, he won't survive ours." Sheridan looked out of the display at Sheraun. I suppose the two of you have a plan?" "Yes we do, Mister President." "Then let's do it, Susan," said Sheridan. Five minutes later the Ares was legally transferred to the IA fleet. ************************** In the Ares' flag mess: "My God. I don't believe it," said Fitzgerald. "I do," answered Owens. "Gentlemen, she just redefined the box, then promptly stepped outside of it again. She has just let all of you and the Earth Alliance off the hook." An unidentified general in the back of the group asked to no one in particular, "With her abilities, why in God's name is she still in earthforce?" "Dedication to a purpose," replied Sanchez. "Dedication to a fault. We could use more people with that fault." ********************************* In Ares' CIC: "Report, Mister Breen," ordered Sheraun. "We have opened to about three hundred kilometers from the rest of the ships, Sir. The war cruiser has moved off about fifteen-hundred kilometers." "Shai Alyt Sheraun, we have completed moving all our missiles and warheads to the starboard side and are preparing to evacuate the unmanned port side spaces," reported the SWC. "Excellent. Mister Breen, use the engines and open out to five-thousand kilometers from the war cruiser. It will let him know we are on to him. Keep our port side to him. I'm trusting you, Susan, that the Ares can take the full power of the war cruiser's weapons down her port side." "He has to shoot through a number of meters of Shadow bio-armor and several hundred meters of hull and non-volatile supplies to reach anything important and then he has to shoot through at least ten more meters of bio-armor after that. By that time, you can destroy him, if it becomes necessary. However, I think that between us and your whitestars, he may decide it isn't worth it." "I won't make that assumption, Susan," stated Sheraun. "Actually, neither do I." **************************** Onboard the Valen's Way: "Shai Alyt Prathen, we have opened the distance between us and the Ares to fifteen-hundred kilometers. It is also moving away from us." "What is our status?" Queried Prathen. "Shai Alyt, our engines are all on-line and at half power. Our weapons systems are on-line and powered up. We are tracking the Ares, but have not locked weapons at this time." "Are they aware of our readiness?" "No Sir. Their reactors are on-line, but are operating at less than one-third power. Their engines are at idle. Their weapons are in standby, and they are only using maneuvering thrusters to open the distance between us. They are apparently unaware of our intentions. I stand corrected Shai Alyt, they have powered up their main drives and are rapidly opening the distance between us. They are also keeping their port side toward us." "Maybe they aren't so uninformed after all," noted Prathen. "Sir. The whitestars have moved to bracket our stern." "Are their weapons on-line?" "No Sir, but they are maintaining their positions at a distance of fifty kilometers." "I smell vermin," noted Prathen. ******************************** In IA headquarters on Minbar: "John, I have initiated contact with the Grey Council," stated Delenn. "I still have contact with the Ares. What orders shall we give Sheraun? I am inclined to have him destroy the war cruiser if it initiates hostilities. I won't have our people fired on without a proportional response." "What do you mean by 'our people'." "I mean the rangers that are manning the whitestars and the Minbari doctors and wounded rangers on the Ares. The humans are quite capable of fending for themselves. If we don't call the shots, Susan will damn well call them, and she isn't very likely to be magnanimous. This will be her fourth combat situation within the last two months. That's a lot for peacetime, don't you think?" "I have a representative of the Grey Council on the communications system. Let me see how they view the situation." "Enthi'zah Delenn. If I understand the situation correctly, you are under the impression that Shai Alyt Prathen intends to initiate hostilities with the humans by destroying the Ares." "Satai Kelovr, that is exactly what I believe." "What is the source of this enlightenment?" "General Susan Ivanova of the earthforce, who is presently aboard the Ares." "I would inquire as to her source, but it won't be necessary. The word of a human military leader hardly qualifies as reliable. If this is all you have, this communication is a waste of time." "Satai Kelvor, Susan and her senior officers were invited aboard the Valen's Path earlier today. While that in itself proves nothing, it was during this visit that Susan became aware of the Shai Alyt's feelings and plans. Before you dismiss this, I would advise you to consider that General Susan Ivanova is a telepath. If you wish not to believe her that is your business, but be advised that the Ares has been legally transferred to the IA fleet and is presently under the command of Shai Alyt Sheraun. His orders are to do nothing unless Valen's Path fires upon the ships presently in orbit around Mars. If that happens, he has been ordered to destroy the Valen's Path with no mercy. Shai Alyt Prathen and his crew will be destroyed with no chance of surrender. I strongly suggest that you not dismiss my communication. If you do so, the fate of the Valen's Path and her crew will be entirely your responsibility. I will be waiting for further communication from the Grey Council after you conduct your deliberations and make your decision. I strongly suggest that you not delay. Shai Alyt Prathen may render your involvement moot." After the display returned to the IA emblem, John looked at Delenn and said, "In Valen's name, you drive one hell of a hard bargain." "I meant every word I said, John. A great many lives turn on what the Grey Council does or does not do. I won't tie Sheraun's hands in responding to this situation." "But you didn't give him any such orders." "You should read the "Standard Operational Procedures Manual" for ranger operations sometime. Unless otherwise directed, all rangers are ordered to use all methods and measures necessary to bring hostilities directed at IA personnel and property to a quick closure with the lowest possible loss of IA lives. The quick and ruthless destruction of the war cruiser comes under that heading, and the Grey Council knows this." "I wonder if Susan knew this when she turned the Ares over to us?" "You can rest assured that she did. As she said, during her long deployment she has made it her business to learn as much about the treaties between all the IA worlds, and I assume as much as possible about those worlds not yet a part of the IA. As much as she says she hates politics, she would make one hell of a diplomat, John." ******************************** Onboard the Valen's Path: "Shai Alyt Prathen, you have a call coming in from the Grey Council. Shall I put it on the display?" Asked his Alyt. "I will take it in my ready room." A few minutes later in Prathen's ready room. "Shai Alyt Prathen, the Grey Council has been informed that you intend to destroy the Earth destroyer Ares. Is this true?" "Satai Brenan, I believe you are of the worker caste. Why are you questioning me about my intentions?" "You did not answer my question, Shai Alyt Prathen." "I don't recognize a worker's right to question me." "Whether you do or not does not interest me or the council. However, an attack on the Ares will constitute an attack on the Interstellar Alliance. The Grey Council has been informed by the vice-president of the IA that the Ares has been transferred to the IA fleet. It is presently under the command of Shai Alyt Sheraun. Command of Whitestar 71 has fallen to his Alyt. If you initiate hostilities toward the Ares or any of the other ships presently in orbit around the planet Mars, you will be destroyed without mercy. Those are the orders issued to Shai Alyt Sheraun. His record in combat is one of distinction. That distinction being the complete destruction of his adversaries. He does not take prisoners, Shai Alyt Preathen." "I will destroy the human lover, and then I will destroy the other humans and their ships. Do not bother me with these communications again." With that Prathen closed the channel. ************************************** In IA headquarters on Minbar: "I regret Entil'zah Delenn, but we were unsuccessful in reasoning with Shai Alyt Prathen. He admitted that he intends to attack and destroy the Ares and the other Earth ships as well. We believe that he also intends to destroy the damaged whitestars. You have our unanimous consensus to order Shai Alyt Sheraun to do whatever is necessary." "I regret that there seem to be no other choices, Satai Kelvor." "As do we, Entil'zah Delenn." "Well, I guess the fat is in the fire, Delenn," commented her husband. "Let's get a channel open to Sheraun. He needs to know what he is facing." "I think he already knows. Susan has probably given him the whole picture." ********************************** IN CIC aboard the Ares: "I understand, Entil'zah Delenn. I will try to avoid destroying the Valen's Path, but I will do whatever is necessary to resolve the situation. I will keep the channel open so that you can observe our actions." "You have been very quiet, Susan," said Sheraun. "At the present time, Sheraun, I honestly can't think of anything constructive to say. I can still read Shai Alyt Prathen's thoughts. He was contacted by the Grey Council, but he blew them off. He is hell bent on destruction and he is willing to get his crew killed in the process. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's insane," replied Susan. "With all due respect, Susan, I believe you may be correct. His actions make no sense. He can't get a war started, and revenge just doesn't seem to be enough. Maybe if we damage his ship enough, some of his crew may turn on him, but I wouldn't bet on it. A warrior ship's crew has never mutinied on a shai alyt since before the time of Valen." "You have the Ares and three whitestars to work with. Show us what kind of tactical commander you are." "I will be pleased to comply, right after he fires the first shot. Whitestar triad, as soon as the Valen's Path fires the first shot, destroy their engines." The man shown on the display from Whitestar 71 replied, "It will be done Shai Alyt Sheraun." ****************************** In Ares' flag mess: "It looks like we are going to be in the fight of our lives, gentlemen," noted Marsh, "And all we can do is sit and watch." "I have to give her credit. She has covered all the bases. The EA is off the hook and Shad Alyt Sheraun has permission to use whatever force is necessary to get the job done. Susan wouldn't have given him command if she wasn't sure he would use that permission," commented Bryson. "I always known Susan had big balls, but I wouldn't have guessed they were this big," added Garibaldi. "After her destruction of Clark's advanced destroyer fleet, I'm not surprised by anything she does," commented Leftcourt. "That's why I want her in positions of real power. She won't back down from anything or anyone, but when she does, you can bet it's only because she has found a better way to get the job done." "There are going to be a lot more dead people around this area before this day is over," noted Sanchez. No one disagreed with him. ****************************** IN CIC aboard the Ares: "He's getting ready to give the order to fire, Sheraun," stated Susan. "Mister Been, give him a view of our port side!" ordered Sheraun. "Already being done, Sir," responded Been. "Sheraun, here it comes!" said Susan. ************************* End Part 13b END PART 13